Hi Gary,
I had already come to the same conclusions that you have about our fellow poster..... nuf said.... and its good to hear from some one that actually has a good idea of what is going on with Google especially your summery of how people search... I totally agree with you.
They are allready charging in the states for enhanced listings in google places so you are right we are next in line...
So the face of the web will change in as much as Google will have Got one over many of us who have put so much time and effort into SEO work becuase the plain fact of the matter is they have at best tolerated us and would ultimately love to charge for everything that features on page 1 of serps.
Now as 70% of the work we derive from the web comes from the 1st page of serps we will soon have no option but to submit to the mighty yoke of Google with regards PPC and paid local listings and in this regard what is beckoning does warrant some pertinent questions raised in the article I have written and just for the anoraks with in our midst who feel that such sentiments are self promoting I can only say I can think of much more productive ways of directing traffic to my sites rather than posting on forums which is why I generally do not bother ... My objective here was to raise peoples consciousness as to what is going on and not just believing the propaganda touted more often than not by Individuals with a vested interest in web hosting for ad sense and promoting or selling Google ad words.
I still would highly recommend anyone listening in on this conversation to read not just my post but the very informative article by the other writer mentioned.... the guy that wrote it has contacts In the highest levels of the web community so he has a good insight into matters pertaining to Google....
As I have always understood matters that is how the web has worked upto this present day You write an informative article with links included that add to the points you are trying to make and some one links back to you if what you have written is of interest and topical that's what has made the web so informative....
One liners and anoraks don't generally get a look in outside of forums because they have not got any thing interesting to say which is why I prefer blogs you can also delete such moronic content if its posted in your blog!
What a Lie then their famous maxim came to be that
Content is King Sayeth the mighty Google The best bit of propaganda of our modern times! You just can not trust any thing Google say as they constantly move the goalposts in this case sideways.
So sad to say the one liners win here or I should say 3 lines which is all Google like you to have on PPC that may change the way we see page 1 of serps but I am sure there will still be a place for such dialogue on the web even after Google have changed the current layout.
Regards Leigh