In my opinion, Google today is far from the great search engine it was in those far-off days, yet I still use it. Even knowing that it indexes only a small proportion of the web using a technique that too often gives precedence to pages that lack authority or coherence, that it is skewed by multiple blog links and can be manipulated by unscrupulous advertisers, doesn't stop me typing search terms into my toolbar and feasting on the results. What's worse, I've let both of my children believe that 'search the web' and 'Google' are roughly synonymous, even though I teach my journalism students at City University that they should never rely on a single source, online or off.

Earlier this year I wrote that Google was becoming so powerful that it should be regulated by a new 'office of search engines.'

My reasoning then was that the web has become central to many people's lives and that leaving search completely to the market was going to give us poor service and leave users open to exploitation.

I think I've been proven right. Google has been able to focus on its advertising and marketing business, and we have all suffered. If we had OfSearch then it would have required quality of service guarantees, just as Oftel does from telecoms companies or Ofcom will from broadcasters apart from the BBC.

Perhaps it is simply that Google has become the Coke of the web. Sweet, available everywhere, and the first choice of the consumer.

The fine wines and elegant cordials are still available, of course, but Coke outsells them all, just as Google outranks other, more refined, search tools.

Like that other dominant American brand, McDonald's, you seem to know where you are with a Google, and for some people familiarity will always be important.

It may be slightly early for resolutions, but I am going to make one anyway. 2004 will be the year I break my addiction to Google and improve the quality of my searching. I owe it to myself.