Planet13 - 4:19 am on Apr 28, 2011 (gmt 0)

@tedster:

The previous algorithm became so predictable that start-ups were getting millions of investment dollars based on their ability to predict Google's response. That practice is probably over.

In some ways, google's success has become its Achilles Heel.

Because one algorithm (google's) has so much market share, it became easier and easier for people with deep pockets to rank higher. After all, they only had to SEO for ONE algorithm.

Lots of hunters in the bush, but only one duck flying overhead.

For purely argument's sake, one could say that if search share was divided equally among, say, four different Search Engines, then maybe the quality of ALL of those search engines would be better, since it would be more difficult to game four search engines than to game one.

(Or you could say it would be harder for all of us practicing SEO to game them.)