Marcia - 6:18 am on May 18, 2008 (gmt 0)

Difference between Alta Vista and Google? Alta Vista wrote cutting edge technology. Google just buys it.

So what was PageRank, chopped liver?

Google may be easier to unseat than most might think.

Hardly. Once branding works its way into the public's mind and hearts, it'll take a marketing earthquake of an 8.0 magnitude on the Richter scale to unseat it. We still Xerox photocopies, and we still do and always will sneeze into Kleenex, no matter how many other brands come and go and try to compete.

It's so much easier to manipulate code that someone else wrote than it is to write it yourself, and Google knows it.

Google knows better than to waste time re-inventing the wheel, when a good wheel can instead be integrated into their own wagon of goods. And Google has the branding impetus to get those wheels rolling, if only by virtue of their breadth of audience and reach.

When it comes to winning the war in the race for users on an emotional level, Google is untouchable. The public doesnt't buy steak, they buy sizzle; and Google is red hot.