I don't know if I would say Google has a monopoly or if it just seems this way because it is the biggest search engine?

This is something that I should take into account. I would love to learn more about this. I hope you could update us regarding this matter. It would be nice to have options other than Google, Yahoo and the others.

I think it is the largest search engine, which why people seem to plan their schedules around PR updates! There will always be people who will stay away from companies that are this large, though. Some will do it based on principle, and some will do it out of spite!

That's very true. Whether Google is a true monopoly or not isn't the most important thing to consider I think. It's the fact that it's getting hard to operate on the internet without recognizing them that's kind of frightening.