The Google killer headline, come on media!

One of the aspects of the whole search engine competition between Google and whoever, is the constant reference to war, battle, killer or cataclysmic in the media. Will all you media types stop using these words? This isn't a war or a battle, it's a competition for mindshare. A competition in which companies are trying to put forth the best service for potential consumers. This is about a serving others, not about forcing them to use a product. No one can do that in the free market.

There is a lack of imagination that writers have when a new search engine comes into the spotlight. No matter how small the search engine or how large, it's called a potential Google Killer. The headlines read, "Will XYZ search be the next Google?" or "Will XYZ search kill Google?" and so on. This is some of the most inane banter on the subject of what search engines do and where they're going. I've seen so many articles about this kind of treatment of new search engines and now it's Microsoft's turn.

All you writers out there, listen up. Stop using this kind of jargon, because it's meaningless. There isn't going to be any Google Killer for the forseeable future. Google has first place in the minds of searchers right now and unless someone comes out with something that is at least twice as good as Google, you aren't going to change their mind. I wish that people who write otherwise thoughful articles would not use sensational headlines but I suppose that's how they get attention. So in a sense, this isn't really a posting on search engine news, it's an opinion about how the media covers search engines these days.

Google is the Kleenex of search right now with Yahoo in a close second but for different reasons and MSN in third. That structure will continue no matter what MSN or Yahoo comes out with. Google may not even deserve it, but it managed to do this first. So let's stop the ridiculous headlines and look at the deeper issues regarding the big three and how they can be used to our advantage.

Keeping it real for marketing, RealWebMarketing.com

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