I remember now, the "embroidered-logo" was for the search engine "Clusty".

Clusty was a spinoff from Vivisimo search which was my favorite until they were bought up. Clusty was like Vivisimo hobbled and it went on to be known as 'Yippy'. I did not even look. Ixquick was good once, then they decided to be 'StartPage' or something and now it is like google's mini-me.

I bet that one day, something will come and "surpass" Google "somehow*".

You haven't noticed? It has already arrived, we are in the midst of it.

Internet of Things (IOT)
No screen. No Google Search. No Google Ads.
Amazon Echo is the new browser monopoly. Need something? Buy it through Echo.

Mobile Apps
Allows websites to circumvent Google altogether. That's why many sites aggressively encourage you to use their apps, they want to free themselves from Google.

Roger Montti

[edited by: martinibuster at 5:16 pm (utc) on Mar 1, 2017]

Search really is no longer the killer application it was, and in any case, Google has nailed it, imho. There's really only Bing amongst the big boys, with all due respect to the many other search services which are good, but don't have the muscle to compete with the 800lb gorilla.

The Internet is now much more than just search, and Google recognised that early on by citing Amazon and Facebook as a bigger competitor. Several other 800lb gorillas are in the same room as Google, and they are not really search engines: In no particular order, they include Amazon, Apple, Facebook, ebay, Baidu, and Tencent. All have become their own destinations for users.

The other aspects include apps, which martinibuster alluded to. Once you have a "brand" you can get your app on mobile devices, and not one of those apps uses google, unless there is a payment involved.

There really won't be a Google search killer, imho.

If someone comes with a revolutionary idea to sort and search the Internet , chances are that Google / Microsoft / Facebook / Amazon buys it.

At some point, I had tons of visits from "Pompos", the web crawler of Dir.com (site no longer exists, and redirects elsewhere). Dir.com looked liked to be a french attempt of a search engine by Iliad, which I think is a major ISP in France. But apparently it never went live.

Gosh people, stop looking backwards. I already pointed out that the search paradigm itself was going away. Do I have to spell it out in all caps for it to be comprehended?

Search engines are a dying paradigm. They are not the future. Search engines are going away. They're like pagers when they were on their way out. It's as absurd to wonder what Pager Company is going to be coming next just within the moment the pager paradigm itself was going away.

No search engine will replace Google because the search engine paradigm itself is going away.

AI and screen-less interfaces (as in IOT) are the future. No ten blue lines there.

Search engines are a dying paradigm.

Watch any random ordinary human using a browser. Tell them to go to suchandsuch site. They will open a search engine--in fact they are probably there already, because a search engine is their browser's home page--and search for the site you've told them to go to.

It's as if the telephone system evolved in reverse. Once upon a time you picked up the phone and direct-dialed a number; now you call Central and ask them to find you Bill Smith.

Apps have, to a great extent, even replaced local search, especially on mobile.

Internet navigation is like mobility... things die out or become a tiny niche (carriage and horse), trucks take work from trains and trains take work from cars (commuters) or bikes and the whole thing is in constant shift and introduces new technologies, which might make it or not (hyperloop, personal carriage drones)...

So, things change constantly and "THIS is the dead of THAT"... who cares, it's gonna change anyhow - online faster than in other industries. SEO like it was, is indeed dead. But there is Amazon, App Stores, Voice Search, Alexa Skills, AI - so many things to optimize and make a stand for people who want to work with technology, that it is a blessing for those who stay agile!

Thanks for your post, pontifex, yes, you're correct, and there is so much more to investigate.

I read recently of another "Google killer" that made those claims. I stopped reading pretty soon after as it was just attention grabbing headlines. The journalist should have known better, imho.

I find this discussion really interesting and it has been giving me food for thought.

It's hard to keep up with the new things but exciting times ahead for product and service optimization in the new age. I've been exploring AI related technology (where I work, not personally) and it's certainly a game changer.

For my own website though, for the moment, first things first - it needs to be a brand before it can be anything else!

GSC has been reporting less & less click-throughs from search, but my page loads keep increasing. This is evidence that more & more of my traffic is not coming from search, but from other sources.

This is evidence that more & more of my traffic is not coming from search, but from other sources.

It's what marketers strive for, in getting a balance of traffic from the many sources other than just Google. It's also why it's important to understand where it's coming from, too.