It really depends on how you play with Google. Because Google is the friend with the football. So you can play by Googles rules and he will return your friendship, or you can get Google upset and he will take that football away with him and go home.

I know it's a metaphor, but it's as close as I can come to describing Google in terms of " friendship"

It can be whatever you want you have to decide all the best Max

I really don't know where to go with this except that maybe it's both. Without Google, Bing and other search engines, We wouldn't have a hope of building an online business so, I would say that they are our friends.

At the same time, however, I would also have to say that they are a business unto themselves but would not be able to survive without people like us trying to do what we do online and in the process drawing people in to search us out.

It's a little complicated but a benefit to most everyone in some way.