Do you use Google? Do you think they are nice and friendly? Do you assume that what is good for Google is good for humanity as a whole? I don’t. Here is why: The top 12 reasons to distrust Google.
- Google supports and implements censorship measures in nondemocratic countries like China
- Google search is almost a monopoly in some countries, it already is one in others (in Germany more than 90% market share)
- Google records and collects all your personal and private data about you and your interests, you might think twice what you search for in future
- Google earns huge money off splogs (Spam blogs) and MFA (made for Adsense) sites with no real content
- Google employs students to manually clean up the search results, they will kick out sites they might deem spammy even if they’re not
- Google is literally a black box company and accountable to nobody, we simply don’t know how exactly they manage our most precious asset: the knowledge of humanity
- Google does not communicate it’s most controversial policy officially but via the private blog of a cat lover
- Google owns one of the biggest US SEO companies, now isn’t that a conflict of interest?
- Google will disclose your private data or IP to identify you even to authorities of non-democratic countries or in cases where people are guilty of free speech
- Google is one of the biggest multinational corporations along with the likes of WalMart and Exxon, it’s owners are two of the richest capitalist on earth
- Google discontinues services like Google Answers or the Google API without prior notice to it’s employees who are then laid off
- Google uses the same rhetoric as the Bush administration: We’re not evil, (the other are)
Now think twice if you as a netizen and/or webmaster want to rely solely on Google products and traffic. Why not instead look out for some alternatives? People, let’s unite for a more social and democratic media. Don’t trust robots, trust humans.
I am Tad Chef and I will enable you to venture beyond Google on my SEO 2.0 blog.
This is the kind of article I was referring too when I made this post
Very simple solution ! Ignore sound business principles, create your own Google, no advertisement support , no political favorites,put a Paypal sticker on your site and all who agree with you can pay your bills ! Or use Mahalo it has live guides, or don’t use Google their success seems to causing you a lot of anxiety. Don’t use Exxon walk every where ! Don’t go to Walmart grow your own food ! Your Attitude toward what exists today is very interesting the problem is that it is in a Museum !
Nice post Tad! Agree completely about a more democratic media. I really like the concept of search results being ordered according to friend rankings, since word of mouth is a huge influencer on our actual decisions. I do see signs that Yahoo is going in this direction.
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That’s a good review of some of the more important concerns, Tad. My biggest concern is that they are really now a publishing company whose revenues come mostly from advertising. You won’t see that in any public mission statement. They still try to portray themselves as trustworthy librarians of the world’s information.
A while back I think everyone would’ve agreed with item 4 (earning money from splogs), but I’m not seeing as many splogs in Google’s SERPs anymore and I’m wondering if maybe they’re not the cash cow for Google that everything thinks they are.
I’d also like to add another one… Google has been known to cut a publisher’s share of AdSense revenue at will (by 50% in my case) without explanation. Is there a problem? Let me know, and I’ll fix it. Oh wait, a shareholder’s meeting is coming up? Well that explains everything then… 🙂
I think I understand where your going with this Tad but I’m pretty sure my clients wouldn’t when I turned up on Monday morning and said “Y’know that search engine that supplies you with over 90% of your sales online we’ll were kicking it in the backside for now because…” the door and my clients would slam so fast … but its an idea for tomorrow just not-for-today.
Got your tin hat on bud?
Hi Tad, nice little list. I write about the more technical side of Google (and others) use of language and PR to implement the conditions they feel useful on the search community over at my blog, surrch.eu.
Just a little quip:
Can you mention a super rich person who isn’t a capitalist? (I can only think of maybe a leader of a communist country)
In my eyes the only way to become super rich is to be a capitalist.
I, for one, never bought that story about how google was formed. How did they manage to take over the search engine market, after sitting it out while all the big players fought it out. Where’d their bottomless pit of money come from?
#11 is false. We all had warning, as did our users.
If Google is so bad then start a better search engine that addresses these issues. Anyone can point out a problem, very few find solutions.
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Top Reason Why It’s Hard To Take This Blog Seriously:
As this person pays no attention to writing properly, it’s hard to believe he takes time double-checking his facts.
Its is possessive, not it’s. It’s means it is. By no means the only irksome misuse of English, but perhaps the most off-putting.
I am really surprised about the overwhelming reaction here. Thank you for the many comments. I won’t manage to adress them all I guess.
I am surprised because it’s nothing new what I wrote. It’s just condensed and easily digestible. Obviously also the urge to distrust Google strikes a chord with many of you one or the other way.
Also thank you for the additional issues you mentioned Google faces. It’s not a complete list of course.
I will only pick up some of the ideas you express so that I get some decent dose of sleep tonight 😉
Marshal: I didn’t speak of boycotting Google right away. I was talking of dealing with Google the way you deal with other corporations. Do you trust Exxon on environemental issues? Do you assume that WalMart if offering organic food and fair trade clothing to you? Of course you aren’t, are you? So why trust a company that supports censorhsip in one of the bloodiest dictatorships with bringing unfazed information to you? Wake up!
From an economic standpoint: Do you like state communism with monopolies controling all types of crucial services? Well, in Germany, as noted above, without Google you do not exist in the Internet. It’s dangerous. Matt Cutts drives thousands of people into financial trouble with one click.
To all:
I am proud to say that I was admitted as a beta tester to Powerset, the most promising Google competitor to date. In fact it seems I am one of approx. only 250 people.
Powerset is indeed already magnificient. It’s like Lexxe but much more advanced. It can answer even complex questions based on semantical analisis of text, understanding the text in a way whereas Google is only counting words, links etc.
So pretty soon we will see a new better search engine rising.
Jeff, Yahoo would be stupid not to use del.icio.us to determine relevancy.
Barry, Marios: These kind of behaviour is exactly the kind of treatment you would expect from an entity that has too much power and is not controlled by anyone. We need something as a uniersal human right to information retrieval and dissemination. Google is the gate keeper to the Internet and thus the biggest archive of human knowledge. The UN should curb it’s power.
Paul, we are already in a transition period. Most people still underestimate social media etc.
Google is the middle man you can cut out.
imonsei: ever heard of artists (especially musicians) and scientist (especially those who get awraded the Nobel prize money)? They are not as rich as capitalists but they are not poor either. Besides what’s the point of being superrich? It’s worthless. It’s perfectly enough to be affluent. You can’t drive more than one car at once, you can’t eat more than one lunch at once, you can’t eat and love gold, Midas tried, he failed. It’s basically amoral to be rich above a certain level. Most of the worlds population is either poor or starving. Capitalists live off the work of others, this is the biggest problem of it. I don’t distrust anybody who works hard to earn good money like doctors e.g., but earning millions just because thousands of people work for you and you get 50 or more $ of every 100 they earn? I do not condone neither wage slavery nor exploitation of others. I’m more the rugged individualist.
celtic: Do you refer to the Google-CIA ties? Of course we all know that huge corporations would never ever work together with intelligence services! Impossible! Especially not in the US where we know that these more or less 50 agencies are under strict control of the people 😉
todd: Who are you, who is “we”?
Jeffrey, as mentioned above, Powerset is really worth waiting for. Lexxe is already a nice preview of next generation search. Besides, you don’t have to invent the world anew if you don’t like it. The first step is always to point out what’s wrong.
@ Tad … looks like our thinking was only slightly ahead of its time (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/19/delicious-integrated-into-yahoo-search-results/) Doesn’t affect rankings yet, but its a start.
Good post. Did you read “Sroogled“? Less structured description to your post with some future outlook 🙂
And still after all these 12 items you use Google Analytics 😉 ?
I like your post!
In Ukraine Google #1 too.
aw: So do you think non-native speakers of English should be forbidden to write blogs in english? I bet your Polish an German are not that good either.
You also might notice that I just compiled a list of well known facts everybody already noticed who reads news about Google at least once in a while. If you are new to this topic google it 😉
It’s really difficult to take commenters seriously who neither have a homepage nor are man enough to comment using their real name.
Jeff, we’re prophets! 😉
Alexander: Did you misspell it? Can’t find it, even on Yahoo 😉
Andrey, thanks for the feedback. How big is the market share of Google in Ukraine?
You mentioned that you were test user for a new SE. Do you think they are in it for the money or will be a non-for-profit as the Mozilla Foundation (which is also receiving some corporate funding btw)? Google started small as well with their Do No Evil motto, now we see what they are. Everyone else in their position would do the same.
Google trails Baidu in China, Yahoo in Japan, Naver in Korea and I believe is No2 in Russia as well. It means that they CAN be beaten, you will just need to have a better product than they offer.
You have all the rights to distrust Google but you can’t deny that they are the best alternative out there, on a global scale. Otherwise they won’t be where they are today 🙂
Tad Chef: I linked directly to the story (now it is underlined):)
No, not underlined again… 🙂 Just click on it.
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