The influx of response to yesterday’s changes at Google are already beginning to flood in and Donna Bogatin at ZDNet has published a pretty scathing reaction. In “Why Google Search will NOT rule the Universe“, Bogatin says that the changes spell the end of high times at Google.com:

Today may very well be looked back upon as the first day that marked the beginning of the end of Google’s upward ascent.

How so? Google aims for Universal Search domination in its just announced proclamation that no need to go anywhere else but Google.com for anything and everything: Images, Maps, Books, Video, and News…

But, Google may find itself facing universal unease with the perhaps soon to be unrecognizable �everyone’s favorite garge band.�

I’m not sure if I’d go as far as to say that this is the end of Google’s rise in popularity. I actually like a few of the changes.

But I will say this: people don’t like change just for the sake of change. If the changes made to a product or service don’t make things better, it could mark the beginning of the end.

I do think it would be in Google’s best interest to give people a choice. Why not let them stick to good, ol’ fashioned search and let me choose whether or not to use the new universal search? At the very least it would give people time to migrate and adjust to the changes.

- Matt