At a forum in Sydney about the future of Search Engine Marketing somebody from the audience asked Google Australia's General Manager: 'When will Google start to not only show search results, but also the protocol that is used to generate the search results?' The Google manager a little giggly answered that of course that isn't possible, although they are working on other forms of openness. I however do think this is possible, and to take it even further: Google will have to do this.

In this time of complete openness of brands, Google will have to follow this trend too. Of course it will then be possible to completely copy Google, if you have sufficient financial means that is. Even so, people will keep using Google. After all, this is about the brand. Like a Coca-Cola top executive once put it: ‘If I had to choose what consumer will forget tomorrow: Coca Cola’s taste or the brand Coca Cola, I would absolute choose the taste. In the end all products can be compared, but a brand that has a strong position in the consumers’ minds, and is used repeatedly, is beyond comparison. This too will be discovered in the world of the new brands, and it will make the experience of brands change fundamentally over time.

Tip for Google: show everything and have more people participate - this will make the brand, its usage, and with this the results, even stronger. Tip for others: start an open source search engine!

• in Dutch