pdivi - 10:13 pm on Jan 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

free traffic from search engines IMO is drying up

I disagree...somewhat. I think free traffic from GOOGLE might dry up, but I think there will always be a play for a company that directs users to websites regardless of whether or not those websites pay for advertising. G is under the gun to deliver insane growth to justify its insane valuation. It will continue to make decisions that boost its bottom line, which will likely force it to edge a lot of very interesting websites from its index. But at some point, those of us (users) who are not very interested in looking at the same-old-stuff search after search will start searching elsewhere.

Google might become the 1999 AOL of search; great for your average Joe, great for your mom, but not the place for folks who take their internet seriously.

True, a big chunk of free traffic will be lost, but some company will find a way to pick up and deliver a piece of that lost traffic.

Just a guess, but that seems to be how things work when companies get too big and too clumsy. Someone steps in and takes up their crumbs.