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I've used the system to promote my own cash back shopping search engine, and it performed significantly better than any of the other search advertising networks and I will be using the it again.

So why do I think that Google’s popularity will wane?

Part of the reason has to do with how much I like it as an advertiser. Google’s moves to G-mail and desktop searching have allowed me to target users more effectively and in ways that will increase the exposure of my brand. But, if much of Google’s initial success was based on its consumer-friendly approach, then they are the same reasons that it is starting to annoy me as an internet user.

I've signed up to everything Google has to offer. I've got a G-Mail email account which I use about 100 times a day and I've installed their desktop search which, despite the name, searches your entire hard drive and integrates these results with web searches on Google. It does become annoying when you're reading an e-mail, say, from your mother about what time to go for dinner and there's an advert saying, "Fed up with Mom's cooking? Go out for dinner, click here" or when you receive an order confirmation for a new DVD recorder and there's an advert telling you that you've actually overpaid for the goods because you are British and that you could get the same thing in the US for half the price. It sometimes makes me yell, "I know but I can't use it here, it’s not compatible, stop rubbing my face in it!”

Aside from the annoyance of the advertising, there are important concerns over privacy. Google probably know everything there is to know about me. The Google tool bar which stands proudly on my Internet Explorer browser reports back to them on every website that I ever visit (which in part explains why their index is so comprehensive). They've got thousands of my e-mails, some from personal contacts and others containing confidential business negotiations. They can search my hard drive directly, from that they could read my business accounts, get the code for my websites, and delve into my more personal files.

Now, initially I had no objections to Google being able to do this, because I have the choice not to use their service. I could stick to Outlook to manage my e-mail, but I think that G-Mail is much better. I could use the built-in file search function on my PC, but I think that the Google Desktop Search service is much better. I tended to think that those that moan about Google's privacy policies should just shut up and handle it or stop using their services.

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