Its about pressure. If Google is stupid enough to make people even contemplate about alternatives, then they would be going on a slippery slope as it is not too difficult to switch, to vote with your legs as it were. Sure Microsoft may be bad, but you have Yahoo search. If you do not like them because of something they do, you can switch from them too, isn't that what free market is all about, alternatives, competition on every variable.

But the previous poster is spot on. There are just as good alternatives to all the services they provide, except perhaps for google maps but that is once in a while use, but they have a monopoly on advertising on the internet and no other alternative even compares.