SearchEngineWatch.com kicked off the new year with an article outlining 5 bold predictions on what lies ahead for the search industry in 2010.

On top of offering up a forecast for the future, SearchEngineWatch enlisted the help of a few industry experts to give their opinion on how likely or unlikely those predictions were to coming true. One of those experts was eZanga founder and CEO Rich Kahn.

Among Kahn’s comments included an opinion on whether or not Google will expand or perhaps even re-focus its brand:

“I don’t think it’s necessary for Google to officially re-brand itself as a software company,” he said. “Many companies that have changed their concept have usually been met with resistance. Ask.com is an example of this, when Ask catered to answering questions, they were very popular among women, which is a great demographic to support. As they continued to change their focus away from what made them popular, they started to lose their loyal audience and that, in the end, has only hurt them.

People use Google for certain reasons, and those reasons are why their popularity is so high…changing that could very well affect their popularity. However, they should continue to grown and offer new products, but should not change their primary focus. Those that ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.”

On the subject of if Google will get it with an anti-trust suit in 2010, Rich replied:

“Antitrust issues always pop up for large companies, I guess it is just the nature of the beast. It’s a sign that your company has reached an elite level. There are rules that all of us must abide by, so as long as they follow those rules, then it will just be a formality, almost a right of passage.”