jimbeetle - 8:33 pm on Jun 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

Call it the Google Gap -- the difference between the growing perception that the site is omniscient and the fact that it isn't.

So true. And, to me, PageRank is the mechanism that distorts the 'Google Web.' It was a great leap five years ago but I now find Google too time-consuming for much of my searching. PR now awards the biggest sites, not necessarily the most authoritative and, in many cases, not the most relevant for my searches.

Do we need regulation? I don't think so. There are alternatives. And I think there's enough competition lurking out there to take advantage of any Google mistakes and many people like me who are quietly switching.

And we're also on Internet time here. As the acquisitions of the past few months are digested and new business plans implemented web search might well look quite different in six months.