here is my 2 cents: each search query generates a result page on google, which in turn is essentially a shelf to hold ads. isn’t it?

an ad impression/click is an ad purchase by the audience. in such system, advertisers supply ads, publisher networks/google serve as distribution channel, while internet users are ads consumers.

i agreed also that google offers more.

great post!

yang

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on
Search Engine Land and from other
places across [...]

Yikes!
Perhaps the one solace for small business owners is that the opportunity is always there to move your rankings up in the natural search results – so Google’s lock on distribution, while firm in advertising, does not extend to the entire range of outlets available to make the public aware of your product or service.

According to the Forbes article, “A full third of respondents said they spent a whopping 21 hours per week managing their PPC campaigns.” That’s even scarier than the excerpt from your post I quoted at the beginning! If that time were instead invested in building more compelling products and inspiring word of mouth mentions that drive forward placement in natural search results, those survey respondents could perhaps escape from the adword auction hammerlock.

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:…

Walmart, Sales of $351 Billion, profit of $11.3B, market cap $205B.

Google, Projected revenue this year of about $15B (if Q1 is representative of the rest of the year – although Google will probably grow) profit of $4B (again this will probably grow), mkt cap $150B.

I’d rather be Google.

On the web, the barriers to entry are very low. Whereas, the barriers to entry for low-cost retail are staggering.

Even if strong competitors do not exist, Google MUST pretend as though they do. If Google begins to slip, others will quickly enter the market to offer better services. Google may be able to acquire emerging competitors, but that seems like a dubious long term strategy.

So even if, as you said, Google dominates distribution, pricing, and monetization — I think you go too far in saying it “cannot possibly be good for the overall market”. Can the continuing necessity for Google to ‘imagine’ strong competitors mitigate the negative effects of monopoly? This is at least worth some reflection.