One in 2.7 million

It was a phone conversation about search engine optimization. She is a potential client. I wanted to demonstrate that blogging is good for search engine optimization.

To demonstrate, I asked her to type in Open -Toed Shoes in Google. Since we were on the phone, I was relying on verbal cues and not able to see what she was doing.

While I was Googling and seeing Open -Toed Shoes pop up as the number one entry ( out of 2.7 million results), my potential client was struggling.

After some conversation, we discovered she didn't Google. She uses MSN. I was taken by surprise. I wanted to ask "Why?" but that was off topic.

Now, before there was a Google, I must have used a different search engine. I just don't remember which search engine I used.

I'm not the only one who has Google on the brain. Writing in Information Week, Alice LaPlante discusses Google's rise to a top 10 brand to its potential Achilles Heel.

"How hot is Google?

- Google's market cap, now hovering at around $132 billion, is bigger than IBM and Chevron.

- Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Raschtchy said the stock would likely soar past $600 this year.

- Unlike high-flying Internet bubble companies of the 1990s, Google is profitable, with revenues growing an average 110% quarterly since it went public in August 2004.

- Google has a war chest of $7.6 billion for doing whatever it pleases.

- Google is one of the top 10 Web brands in the U.S., and the second-fastest-growing Web site, building traffic 29% in the past year, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. Only Apple's Web site is more popular; Yahoo and MSN lag far behind.

- Google is king of search-related advertising, and search-related ads are the fastest-growing sector of the online ad business, which is growing at 41% annually, said Piper Jaffray.

- Google has almost twice as many search ad clickthroughs as runner-up Yahoo. In December, Google had 16.5 trillion ad clickthrough, compared with Yahoo's 9 trillion, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

- Google earned $3.64 billion from U.S. online ad revenues in 2005, representing 69% of all paid search advertising, according to eMarketer"

It's a great read and be sure to click through to The Guardian's piece on how they manipulated Google's Search Engine with their spoof site for "eco-friendly flip flops".

Web search has become the focus for a legion of marketers over the past decade, and their tactics - known as search engine optimisation (SEO) - are the basis of a multibillion pound worldwide industry. Most are legitimate businesses, but some so-called "black hat" SEOs use unethical strategies to boost their clients.

Meanwhile, after I finished my phone conversation, I decided to treat myself to a vanity trip through the search engines.  I was having a great time until I stopped by Ask Jeeves where I got a big fat dose of search engine reality. It seems they never got my dance card.