Competition is a good thing. Unfortunately over the years Google has been able to retain absolute worldwide dominance over the Search market. Many updates and changes to their search engine wouldn’t have taken place if there were other players in the market pushing the boundaries in my opinion.

Here are a few what ifs that I could think of:

• Many successful websites would be able to sell advertising without worrying about losing 65% of their traffic
• Google wouldn’t make updates like domain crowding
• SEOs wouldn’t feel as inclined to have to add G+ buttons to their content
• GWT warning messages wouldn’t exist
• Webmasters might consider blocking GBOT via robots.txt
• You would be able to buy links on relevant sites because it actually generated sales and not worry about the rel tagging game.
• You wouldn’t have to hear industry experts always talk about Google at conferences
• PPC would be reasonably affordable for high traffic verticals
• Search quality would be more important again, not just “good enough”
• “Not provided” would have never started

As someone who owns small businesses, is invested in large businesses, and help clients make more money online, I can only hope that something comes along that gives Google a run for its money in the coming years to alleviate problems like this, and this.

Competition is healthy. Users need it and businesses need it.