I don't have exact numbers.  Needless to say, a lot of people use Google (or some form of Google) as their start page when the ol' web browser gets fired up.  Because of that, Google has been dubbed by some as "the start page of the Internet".  And studies have even suggested that some of the Internet's less technologically inclined actually use the Google search box as their URL box - and simply type addresses directly in to it.

An interesting post over at Search Engine Land looks at the idea of Google as "the start page of the Internet" and if that title will hold true into the foreseeable future.

In the article, Greg Sterling looks at customized portal services, like Netvibes, Pageflakes, YourMinis, MyYahoo, etc.  With these services, users can create their own start pages that bring the information they're interested in directly to one location.  A Netvibes page, for example, can show you the weather, RSS feeds from your favorite sites, news, your email inbox, to-do lists, eBay accounts, MySpace friends, and even several search engines.

Sterling's argument is that services like these will eventually supplant search engines as our Internet start pages.  And I think he's right.  I mean… what's the point of going to Google to search… or Yahoo for email… or NYTimes.com for news… or eBay for auctions… when you can get it all in one place?  It should be pointed out that most of the content pulled from various services by Netvibes, MyYahoo, etc is only partially interactive within the portal page.  For example, you can check your Gmail account from Netvibes.  But clicking an email will still open Gmail and load the message there. But it still means less visits to Gmail.

But these types of portal services are but one piece of the puzzle that I think will eventually lead to the downfall of the search engine as a start page.

Services are popping up almost weekly that gather and condense content.  Feeds allow people to read your content without ever having to visit your site.  And new services, like Yahoo's new Pipes service, promise to further give users control of the content they see.  You can pull content from these services that you're completely unaware of.  I, for example, have discovered numerous new blogs and websites through feeds from other sites.  I even downloaded an exported list of feeds once and found about two dozen sites that I wanted to keep reading.  But I've never technically been to most of those sites.  I just read their feed.

Popup blockers, ad filters, flash blockers, customization add-ons that literally let you edit the display of a page from your browser, and clipping services further add to the customizable nature of the Internet. With the rise of social networking, people are getting a lot of their online content from friends, family members, and online connections.  Blogs are driving traffic with reviews, mentions, and even comments.

I don't think search engines will disappear any time soon.  There will always been content that people are looking for that cannot be supplied by other means.  And people will always use search engines to find that stuff that they simply forget how to access.  But search will certainly diminish in the coming years.  It might even continue to dominate the way people find information online.  But that dominance will shrink to smaller and smaller degrees.

As people start connecting to every social network, content aggregation service, customized portal, and customization bandwagon that the web throws their way, they'll start searching less and less.  More and more, it will be the consumers, and not the search engines, driving traffic to sites.  StumbleUpon is doing it. Digg is doing it.  Sphere is doing it.  MyBlogLog is doing it.

So what does this all mean?  It means that, as marketers, advertisers, publishers, and search optimizers, we have to start thinking about these new services now… not after they've become the "new start pages" of the Internet.  What can you do to make sure your content is still reachable by all of these new services?  And if advertising pays the bills, how can you make sure those ads continue to perform?  If you've got all of your eggs in the search advertising basket, how can you diversify now to avoid pitfalls in the future?

The problem with a lot of marketing and advertising is that it's always two steps behind what's going on in the present.  We've still got time to catch up.  But we have to act now.  Not tomorrow.  Not when our trusty "start page of the Internet" is just another site people sometimes use.