Will the iPad, apps and Facebook 'sideline' Google?

Google could be sidelined as consumer behaviour online changes and newer technology such as the iPad and applications come to the fore.

This was the view of TechMarketView chairman Richard Holway who said he was concerned about the future of the search giant, which derives much of its revenue from sponsored listings.

Holway was speaking at the Affililate Window ‘Future of Digital’ event which gave insight into current trends and the digital landscape to come.

He outlined a scenario of people accessing the internet using apps and therefore bypassing Google and other search engines.

Holway also said Facebook could become the starting point or portal for everything we access in the future especially with its recent tie up with Microsoft as well as plans to enable calls from the social network.

He also said we’re almost getting to the point where you can access the internet from almost any device as well as draw all the applications we access together in one place.

“What will Facebook become the portal to and how will we control that? How will people access the internet , via applications? And, where does that leave Google? It does not exist in a Facebook portal or apps portal and it’s a company I worry is really going to have a problem.”

Holway said that despite Google’s exponential growth in recent years it could be locked out and pointed to Apple overtaking Microsoft in terms of capitalisation earlier this week.

“There was a time when Microsoft had that exponential growth but the world is changing and much faster than ever before. I see a situation when the dominance of search is reduced. There are a lot of new companies in and having a major affect on people that have dominated the world.”

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