They do such a good job that browsing starts with a Google search for most people. You want to visit CNN? Then start by searching for CNN on Google and then click on the first link! Those who offer professional SEO services rejoice themselves when this statistics goes up, but they shouldn’t so much. Here’s why.

While Google offers the possibility to appear on a search by fiting or integrating with its search formula, it also has the power of preventing websites from appearing on its search pages. That’s crazy most would say. But not so much according to the price discrimination phenomenon, which means that a monopolist charge different prices to different clients for reasons that are at its sole discretion. For now, the price Google is charging to appear on searches is the cost of fitting with its search formula.

Now, what would happen if Google manages holds 90% or more of searches done on the Internet? Well the answer is very simple: all web pages will be Google web pages. They will be owned by Google because Google will decide if they are to appear in search or not. Indeed, all websites will be ’second clicks’ to some Google page.

Of course, this is slightly exaggerated as asking such a price would deprive the incentive from building websites, which would render the search engine to become useless. But what will most likely happen is that there will be a AdWords premium to be paid by all those who want to appear in search. After all, Google would somehow be hosting the Internet!

The message that Microsoft is trying to send is that it is not a monopoly and that therefore all government regulators should stop pushing their anti-trust agenda against it. Microsoft is crying: “leave us alone: we have competition”.

I think that Microsoft is not telling the truth about what it believes is real competition. The Search Engine partnership with Yahoo is much more indicator of where the competition is.