The other day, my boyfriend told me how he bragged to his colleagues that his girlfriend is working at Google. (Cute, I know right, LOL.) I let him finish talking before telling him for the nth time that I don’t work at Google.

But I guess I can’t blame him. Before me, Search Engine Marketing was a foreign concept to him. Apparently, to his colleagues too, who were easily impressed, albeit unaware that it’s impossible for someone who’s in the Philippines to be working at Google. I mean, unless you’re Aileen Apolo, that is.

But yeeah, I know that’s the easiest way to explain things right? When you’re doing Search Engine Marketing, you’re basically kissing Google’s ass. And most people would probably understand the term “Google” more than they would recognize what a “search engine” is. Here’s me talking to my uncle from California who visited Manila last month:

Uncle George: So, Riz.. do you work in a call center?
Riz: Nope. I’m doing Search Engine Marketing.
Uncle George: *puzzled look* Uhm, what’s a search engine..?
Riz: Uhm, Google, Tito.
Uncle George: Ohhh, Google!
Riz: Yep.
Uncle George: You work at Google?
Riz: *give up*

Undeniably, one of the the most challenging things about this job is how you explain it to people who dare ask.

But that’s not the point of this post. The point is, Google, in its relatively few years of existence, has managed to define the concept of Search Engine Marketing.

Graph from Search Engine Land.

With a whopping 64% share of all internet “searchers” in 2007, Google’s, no doubt, one of the major reasons why there were rumors about a Microsoft-Yahoo merger, and the news-breaking Yahoo layoff, and the slow death of all the other struggling search engines in the web. And then there’s Ask.com’s announcement that they, too, like Yahoo, would be laying 40 people off their payroll and adopting a new strategy starting this year.

Hands down. It’s beyond comprehension how Google dominates this particular area of internet marketing life. Sometimes to the point of being.. tragic.