Google follow-up

Rachel left a comment on my blog post entitled 'Google is the daddy' which I replied to, but my answer started to get so long that I thought I would turn it into a new 'post'...

I agree with you on most of the issues you raised. I am not sure about Googlenet but I know what you mean about them having such a big hold on the Internet. I do think that alexa is trying to compete with their ranking system but it would be great of there was a real competitors

Thanks Rachel
Alexa rankings are all very well, but it's the search engine position that most people are after - traffic monitoring is no doubt a consideration, but PR (I presume) is more complex... PR alone does not get you SERP, but a combination of PR and on-page optimisation - Google could decide tomorrow to use Alexa rankings (which are an indication of traffic) instead of PR - that's the problem for SEO 'experts' the formula keeps changing as trends change and people try new tactics to 'black hat' their way to high SERP. The more you try to 'fool' the system, the more complex the system becomes as it reacts. The problem is that no-one regulates the reaction, Google have only to answer to themselves. Right now I honestly think they do a good job and they are not really exploiting their global domination, but I do also feel that the loopholes are there if there was a change of heart and policy. This is why Monopolies are investigated and surely it can't be too long before Google oversteps the mark and gets broken up into separate entities?
I don't have any insider knowledge about these matters, these are just my observations as an internet user and specifically someone who has used Adwords and Adsense and uses Google search all the time.