By Rosalyn Eishen | @rosalynchoo Since the 5^th grade, whenever I've needed to know something, I have turned to Google.  Sure there are books and encyclopedias and stuff, but as a kid, I was encouraged to use the web and the mass of information it stored.  Now, as a 21 year old working in the ever-changing industry of social media, I realize how heavily dependent we are on the web.

And who is the king of the internet?  I’m sure most people would say Google. So what if Google suddenly didn’t exist?  Almost sounds like some apocalypse situation.  How would our lives change, and how would it change the way we do business?  Let’s explore.

Imagine how the loss of the biggest search engine in the world would affect small businesses.  A small business that relies heavily on Google (like many do) could lose their advertising with Google’s AdSense, their primary communication platform with Gmail, and tons of documents/presentations with Google Docs.  The SEO that they’ve worked hard to build up will undoubtedly go down - they’ll no longer have the same ranking they’re used to having with Google’s search algorithm.

This infographic breaks down everything Google offers and shows what the alternatives would be if they went away.  Would you want to live in a world without Google?

Without Google, we could still do all the same things, just not as efficiently and not all in the same place.  You might go to Mapquest to look up directions to that next meeting, and use Yahoo as your primary email platform.  Bing could take over the general search, while Daily Motion or Vimeo might be the next best video sharing site.  And you'd probably do it all on Mozilla Firefox, rather than Google Chrome.  What Google has offered us is not only a cutting edge, clean platform, but also a well-designed system that connects it all together.  You don’t have to visit a million little sites throughout your day online because Google has a nice little toolbar that lets you do it all.

How would the loss of Google affect your small business?

Infographic and image by OBizMedia