I will try to try to find a search engine other than Google, because many search engines are also useful for example bing.
I will go for some other alternatives like yahoo, bing and so on. Or else I will use directory websites.
If Google didn't exist life wouldn't be so different, because one of the other major search engines would be at the forefront of the market instead of Google. Search engines are something that are used by probably 80% of all internet users worldwide, if Google wasn't there then one of the other main ones, Bing, Yahoo etc would come forward and take the top spot.
If you would have framed the question a better way like "What would you do if there were NO search engines??" then this would surely be a huge matter of discussion.
Without Google, digital marketing would become more and more social over time. Networking creates relationships among website owners. Needless to say, that will lead to inequality among the masses. Search engines are what establishes and retains the "theory of equality "over the internet.
Ya know...I used to think it was good to have one BIG leader in the search engine domain so we would primarily have just one to deal with. Butt...after actually dealing with them from adwords, adsense, SEO, etc. I have decided they are absolutely EVIL (absolute power corrupts absolutely)! So "if there were no Google"...I would be verrah happah! In fact I have have been rooting for the other SEs to catch-up and even out the playing field. P.S. anyone know if DVDs of "Common Crawl" (or other crawls) exist? I know you "can" download the files, but at 81TB it seems inefficient to DL all that.
If there was no Google, then it would be some other corporation in its place. We'd all be fighting for rankings on Yahoo or AskJeeves. I don't think there's a win-win situation.
Yes probably we would do that. Or as somebody mentioned also,we would use other search engines. But this is the best answer!!Good one!
Me personally - i would probably still be with AltaVista. I used to love that thing. AltaVista and GeoCities - my introduction to the internet with my 14400 dial-up modem. Ahh, the good ol' times
Other search engines would earn more and they would be a lot happier))) Always there would be a second choice. The second or third search engine would replace google and be the number 1. Always there are alternative choices. Alternatives never ends.)
@Aztral, I agree with you! I have been saying in other threads that I don't think we should lean so heavily on Google. For one thing, I don't like the Big Brother attitude they've developed. For another, if they disappear tomorrow, what will happen to businesses whose biz models rely on Google to survive? Recipe for disaster, if you ask me. Diversify and create businesses for your customers/readers. NOT for Google. Sure, do what you can for organic results but remember that consumers who value what you offer will remain loyal, even if you run into a temporary spot of trouble or take a vacation. They don't care how search engines deal with your site. Google will not offer you any kind of loyalty.
Oh to be young! lol I remember the days before Google came along, where we had directories of content that we visited to find useful information relevant to our needs. You could find a couple of really good directories and have absolutely everything you needed right there. Then Google arrived, gained some power, and destroyed those directories (because they were a direct competition). Personally, I would love to go back to those days, where business depended on where you were, how you promoted and marketed your site and how the audience responded - the good old fashioned commercial world of advertizing and placement. These days it's all about pleasing an unelected faceless police force which dictates the rules and demands that you comply, then punishes you for not complying while refusing to tell you the reason why. Imagine how it was, and how things are now. We really are not any better off as businesses. It used to be that you could add your site to a link directory and you would get thousands of visits because of your marketing, the needs of the searcher and the content you have to offer, without the constraints dictated by another corporation. Now you have to obey the rules of a private business which has its own monetary motivations and controls the flow of traffic, like an armed militia blocking the high-street.
@Conran - love what you said, makes me feel wistful. The thing about the Google police is that the true and complete set of rules is never revealed to us. I find it draining to worry about it, so I don't.
Indeed, it's fruitless spending too much time fretting, one day things will change again, and hopefully for the better. Until then, all we can do is make our content as good as it can be, play by the rules Google sets out publicly - within reason - and create content for our visitors that they will find worthy of acting on, sharing or otherwise following.
If Google hadn't exist, the dominant search engine would probably be Alta Vista. In fact, Google's algorithm was very similar to it when Google first started.