The Godfather of Search? What About the Godmother?

Last week I received a quick email from Jeremy Shoemaker, asking me who I thought the “Godfather of Search” was. Shoemoney explained that he had heard many difference responses to that question, so wanted to blog about it. Seeing that “Search” has different connotations in our industry – “search marketing” or “search industry – I asked him which he meant. Wanting my initial gut reaction, he didn’t want to clarify his question any further. Fair enough, so I gave him this answer…

I’d have to say Larry Page. Assuming “godfather” means the person that controls a specific industry and has all the power, you’d have a hard time finding anyone with more power than Page (and sidekick Sergey Brin). Without PageRank, we’d have no Google, and without Google, search would not be what it is today. Google controls search, Page and Brin control Google.

Logical, no? Anyway, Jeremy’s posted a bunch of different responses and it appears most intrepreted his question as being the godfather of “Search Marketing”, and it appears Danny Sullivan is the clear winner.

So, my long winded post gets me to this point. If we’re talking about SEM, there is no doubt that Danny Sullivan is the one who’s ring we all kiss. If we’re talking about the search industry, I stand by my initial response.

But, what about the most powerful woman in search? Who do you think is the “godmother” of search?

* Apologies to all the great ladies that I missed off the poll, but I added an “other” for write-in votes.