I love Google and I make my living by seoing websites online for Google so hope it will last for loooong long time...!
Its not about competition, its not about if someone will replace google.... someone sure will........ but as a Google search engine USER I cannot just expect and see the same quality in terms of results for those engines. Think about Yahoo or MSN, the biggest competitors who cant even compete with Google together.... and you think the search engine market will be more quality oriented if Google disappears? Think again!
If google did cease to exist, it would be very catastrophic (not because we'll go back to hearing people saying they Asked (non-existent) jeeves for directions, but because Google has such a value of a company...they own youtube, countless other things, they have a huge chunk of internet advertising dollars, and employ a ton of people worldwide. It would probably cause another "Tech Crash"...but the void of "omg where do I search" would defiantly be filled with other sites, and life would go on, but the impact would be felt much farther than just the internet. But I do adore that picture =).
Other companies like Yahoo! or MSN or Ask or Cuil??? You really think they are even close to being as good as google is ?
if ever google's existence will disappear I think that there are a lot of alternative ways that can used, switching to other SE's like Yahoo or MSN and etc....
All the search engines will generate results because thats what they are supposed to do.... but I am talking about Quality results Are you really satisfied about Yahoo or MSN search results?