Brands are everywhere: In the high street, in the mall, around the globe, and, for you and me, online.

Localisation might have been the answer, but it's also dominated by brands.

The deep pockets of brands mean a smaller business cannot compete online.

What if there was new search engine that only displayed non-brands?
The idea would be that the independent business would have as good a chance as any other in the mall of the Internet.

It would need to define a brand, of course, but, if you think about it, it's relatively easy. Brands just wouldn't be listed in any organic results.

Google and Bing could do it, but that would go against their objective, and certainly wouldn't be good for the bottom line.

How would the new search engine make money to survive?

Pay-for-play really won't work as we're talking about small businesses that might spend less than $1000 per year to promote themselves.

There are options to be ad-funded, and you could use the funds of brands to pay for ads.

Perhaps i'm just dreaming and you'll wake me up in a moment.