You know a company is successful when their name becomes a verb used for doing something. In today’s world, everyone knows what “Googling” something means. Google is the biggest kid on the block and has been for some time now. However, there is a change in the air that has been happening. If we know anything about technology, it’s that just because your the big guy now, it doesn’t mean it’ll always be that way (can you say MySpace?). While it might be hard to imagine Google not being the top dog when it comes to finding things on the internet, it’s definitely a possibility. Being in the , it’s important to look at even some “what if” scenarios that could take place.

Why Could It Happen?

Any service or company could lose their market share for various reasons. In Google’s case, it may simply be the competition, or it could be that Google iron fisted ways will eventually catch up with them. You may not have seen this, but a few months ago, Mozilla released an update to their popular web browser Firefox. What you may not have noticed was in that update, it replaced the default search engine from Google to Yahoo (which uses Bing to power its search results). Overnight, this caused Google to lose almost 25% of it’s search engine market share and Internet users to clamor as to why it happened. Many believe that some of Google’s heavy handed tactics over the years are leading some to gravitate towards Bing and Yahoo as they seem to be easier to work with.

What If It Happened?

This leads many to wonder, “What would the internet search engine market look like if Google was to lose even more of it’s market share?” Many internet marketers would probably welcome the change, as Google has gone out of their way to clean up search results over the years that have left many internet marketers with more than sour grapes. If market shares began to change dramatically, then one would assume that Bing would take the same steps that Google did in working to clean up their search results, making it easier for people to find what they are actually looking for. It could be a reset to what was known as the “wild west of seo days,” when you could just rank for keywords by plastering a page with keywords. If you wanted to rank for the terms”” or “” then you would just sprinkle those keywords in a few hundred times and boom, it would rank. Personally, I would think this would be a terrible thing, as nobody wants to come across these sites again. Although, I’m sure many a marketer would welcome it, even if it was just for a short time before it was outlawed again.

Will It Happen?

I find a scenario where Google has been completely taken over by another search engine competitor unlikely at this time. However, Bing is definitely making inroads and taking away some of Google’s share over the last few years. One reason why I don’t believe Google is another MySpace is because Google strives to give the people what they want. If you’re searching for something, they want you to find it and find it fast. But that doesn’t mean that Google will be as dominate as they have been as Bing makes more and more improvements to its service. Not to mention, Bing has a rewards program where they will actually pay you to use them over Google. While Google may not be completely overtaken, It’s not hard to see a scenario where Google and Bing come close to sharing the search engine market share.