Actually, SE's do employ others to do SEO for them. I don't know if Google does, but I know MSN does from personal experience
Since we are getting into conspiricy theories why not throw in Micro$oft controling it all at the top through M$N. Google dont need seo, word of mouth alone guarentees them the crown.
Was just kidding. Your answer made me laugh too The most important factor for their scuess is not their technology. I think it was what you refer as "word of mouth" which means sth more than that..
*Chuckles* Well, this was good for a laugh, I must say. Even better than the one about finding African Slaves for sale on ebay.
well not exactly, if somebody is using one search engine to find another search engine where he can search what he's looking for then they would probably be useless to google