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I usually don’t go on rants here, but this one has been brewing in my mind for a long time. A recent trip to the Apple store made it that much worse for me too. I was one of the suckers that got the iPhone way back in the day, and own the old school, non 3G one. The one thats a piece of crap now … right?

I hear the commercials about how the new iPhone 3G is half the price, and twice as fast and the only thing I can think of is how I got 100% screwed by Apple. I go into the stores and hear from the Apple “specialists” that I can sell my old iPhone for good money on eBay or Craigslist (average of 400 on eBay) and I even heard of a service that will make it even easier to swap your iPhone (just today).

I have a problem with all this, and wonder why more people don’t. I have to worry about going through all the trouble of getting all my stuff off the old iPhone, make sure its clean and clear, go to drop off spots, figure out the shipping, worry about getting screwed or scammed on eBay or Craigslist (WAY MORE HASSLE THEN I WANT TO DEAL WITH)… especially when I feel I should just be able to go into an Apple store and exchange it right there, and have them take care of the customers that were loyal to them from the beginning.

Besides the iPhone, I own an iPod shuffle, two Mac books, a powerbook, and am about to buy an iMac so I am starting to feel like Apples little bitch with things like this going on with the iPhone. I feel like they should take care of me, let me bring in my iPhone … clear it out for me, get all the files moved over and upgrade me for free - and NOT have to pay 10 bucks more for the unlimited data plan. I mean … COME ON!!!

I just keep thinking about how I paid twice as much for an iPhone that is twice as slow as the new 3G ones and Apple just keeps laughing at suckkers like me (all the way to the bank) that keep doing it and making them even more money. Ok this was a rant, and there is nothing I can do about it, and will probably go and upgrade because the old iPhone is incredibly slow and horrible, but I do feel better now!

So… are you?

According to Urban Dictionary Googlecentric means having a view of the world centered around Google and Googling. In the example given it said that “My wife doesn’t belief that ____ exists because it wasn’t available on Google. She is Googlecentric.”

Of course so far I haven’t really searched for something that existed that I haven’t found on Google. I do believe though that if I sit down to think about it I WILL find something not on Google…or rather I will not find that something in Google.

Anyway the question came to my mind without really knowing that there was already a definition of the term. I was just thinking about how most SEOs are too focused on Google. I have posted the importance of not neglecting to optimise for other search engines before (back when Ask hadn’t changed their strategy yet) and I though that I should reiterate the importance now. I guess we really all know why it is important to give other search engines at least some attention but then again it is good to be reminded every now and then. So here’s a short list on why we shouldn’t be focused on Google alone.

1. Other search engines bring traffic too - I guess this is the most important reason. No traffic should be discounted. So even if you don’t really strive to be on the top of other search engine’s SERPs you should at least make sure that you are indexed there!
2. Just in case scenarios - You should be visible in other search engines for days (rather seconds/minutes) when Google goes down. It may be just a few minutes but not being in other SERPs means automatically saying bye to the few/many users who didn’t bother to wait for Google to go up and simply used another search engine.
3. Targeting specific types of users - While Ask may no longer be a full blown search engine you can bet that if your primary target users are married women then you should make sure you do well in Ask’s SERPs, after all that is their target market too. This doesn’t only apply to ask. Check out the conversion/retention rates of the traffic the different search engines bring although Google will definitely bring more traffic bounce rates may be the highest there. If you find that retention/conversion rates from a certain traffic source (not just search engines) are pretty good then put a bit more effort to ensure that you place well in that search engine’s SERPs.