Interesting post. For those unfamiliar, SEO = search engine optimization. The act of optimizing a site or content to rank for specific keywords or queries.

While you make some valid points, Google e.g. al. will retain their places as gatekeepers for many years to conmne, whether in their current form as a destination to enter a query or whether they evolve into something else.

This is mainly due to the existing and ever-growing infrastructure they are putting in place to be at as many touchpoints and entry points to the digital world as they can.

You need only look to the apps currently offered by Google...search app, maps, Gboard, Gmail, etc. And that doesn't scratch the thousands of developer APIs that power many third party applications. So in one form or another, Google is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

We can make change if we want it, but progress is slow. I mean, the less tech savvy users nearly always use the default option, despite exponentially better options on the market...think Internet Explorer over Firefox, etc., or using the default Yahoo search toolbar vs using DuckDuckGo as a better option for privacy.