Wow… did I find something I don’t like about Google?

Today in TechCrunch, I read a post by Duncan Riley on Google dropping EnjoyPerth out of its search index because the firm sells text links to other sites. Since Google’s search rankings depend on the number of places a web site is linked, selling text links would hurt Google’s ability to measure a web site’s relevance.

In the post, Riley brought up a good point:

Overall though an interesting question arises, not just for EnjoyPerth but for all of us: is it healthy that we are all so reliant on Google. Are we better off for Google’s domination? would we be better off with stronger competition?

As much as Google is a user-focused company (and I certainly believe it is), lack of competition will make you comfortable and lazy. If selling text links is good for the advertiser, publisher (i.e. bloggers), and the reader (you and me), wouldn’t a user-focused company like Google want to build its search algorithm to accommodate this?