what does it matter history has shown people will start over with whatever services are better or easier. if google falls you'll go with another set of services and the cycle starts over.

Oh I don't doubt that I'll be able to start over somewhere else, but this event would be the first of its scale. Google own/hold more of my identity than any other online system/organisation ever has - something I'm sure is true for others too.

Moving to other providers, after having invested so much time and effort (for better or worse) into the almighty GOOG would be a massive pain for me, a techy, let alone for those not so inclined. I can't imagine having to walk through the Yahoo! Mail interface with my mother, for example :)

I'm not sure something as useful and integrated would rise anytime soon, though. It might be more akin to the Roman empire falling and feudalism reigning for years until something else comes along. Google's been able to make so many high quality services for free because they dominated a cashcow (search) for years. Those kinds of situations are somewhat rare.