Originally Posted by SageMother

As soon as people start using other means of attracting traffic, the dependency disappears. Too many are wringing their hands and saying they have no choices, which perpetuates the disservices Google doles out with impunity.

The problem appears more associate with laziness, to me, and not with commons sense. With a little effort, other options are just as useful as Google. When other factors, like plain old traffic, conversions, and flexibility are used as instead of Google page rank, things will change quickly. It is almost as if Google has mesmerized everyone.