Internet users are fickle. One day's hit website can quickly end up being found only in the recess of someone's Internet Explorer history folder.

I remember when I first got online back in 1997, Altavista was the best search engine out there and I think I made it my default home page. There was also Hotbot and Excite which I used from time to time. Today, everyone seems to use Google, but I might its popularity be about to wane?

Launched from a garage, but with a $1 million investment from Andy Bechtolsheim (founder of Sun Microsystems) in late 1998, Google has grown to become the search engine of choice for millions of people. It was hyped up by everyone, especially anti-corporate types who admired the site's anti-establishment attitude and lack of graphic advertising. In fact, back then, there was a lack of any advertising at all.

Then it all changed in late 2000, when Google introduced a limited advertising product, called Adwords, in the United States. I remember when I first heard about it, I thought that the Google guys must be mad. Unlike all the other search engine advertising companies (like Overture and

Espotting) they charged not per click, but per impression. I did a test campaign on one of my sites and lost about $100 in a day without a single visitor to my website. Google learned fast that this model could not work and in 2001 they launched the cost-per-click adwords system that is used by hundreds of thousands of small and large advertisers across the globe.

The system itself is well designed and does what it sets out to do, promoting websites and making a charge every time someone visits your website. In fact, it does more than that, since the price you pay is determined by the “relevancy” of your ad and the price that other advertisers are willing to pay. This results in a different cost each time someone visits your site, based on those variables.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive