Forrester: My View: Googlescape

George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research thinks Google's hype exceeds its true value as a business. One of the primary factors he uses to determine value is site stickiness. But to get people to switch to a new search engine purporting to be better than Google would require making a very compelling case.

That said, any search engine that could find a way to combat search spam, the affiliate-driven pages that add no content value, will have a significant competitive edge. Google is filled with millions of pages of search spam, and soon Yahoo will be as well, as the spammers shift their strategies to fit Yahoo's new algorithm. Just like e-mail, the company that fights spam best will likely win the most marketshare.