In my opinion, local search is the hottest new web technology to impact how local business marketing takes place. But we covered that last month. Google and the other dominant search engines (Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask Jeeves) have been very busy competing, building brand loyalty, and vying for market share. You may have noticed that Newfangled focuses most of their attention on Google and not as much on the other search engines. I've written about Google, and we've created most of our search engine optimization strategies and tools for Google. Our current focus on Google is justified since they maintain a comfortable dominance among search engine users. Of course, things on the web change quickly, and MSN or Yahoo! could encroach on Google's lead. If this were to happen, we would adjust our focus, but I'll admit it...I'm a Google fan. I hope they continue to lead the search engine industry.

I like Google for two reasons. First, their tools work extremely well. They deliver what they promise. Second, they focus on simplicity. Everything they build has a clean, easy-to-use, and intuitive interface. They don't clutter their screens with unnecessary buttons and links. I recently saw a quote on Slashdot.com that commends Google's ideology, "It's pretty interesting to realize the subtle way in which they've [Google] risen to the top by simply providing what people want -- no more, no less..."

Even Microsoft has been paying attention to Google's keep-it-simple-success. A comparison of search.msn.com and Google is revealing in this regard. I recently used Microsoft's SpyWare to cure my home computer of a massive AdWare pop-up invasion. It was surprisingly easy to use, and the interface was very clean. I'm glad that Google's success has, at the very least, inspired their competitors to clean up their acts.   next >