Google – Do No Evil

This month I wanted to expound a little on some of the negative ideas going on at Google. Why? well I am a Google Fan, but you should rarely take something from the Internet at face value.

So what is going on?

Well – let’s start from the Search Engine – www.google.com – it is now 80% of the UK market dominates in English speaking cultures and has healthy viewing in most other countries. Recently Google however introduced a system that allows you to ‘promote’ your preferred websites within the search results. This is fine in itself… but what will happen when Google starts using this Data to sway other people’s results. It means it will be possible to ‘push’ websites up the rankings manually. Or in real terms artificially.

Also it should be noted that Google currently give precedence to Wikipedia – so the technology is being used now and today to promote one website over other. All that defends the principal of a search engine is Google’s Moral Code to ‘do no evil’.

Let’s look at YouTube; this service is haemorrhaging money, around half a billion per year. Whoops, Google relied on two things, first revenue from the adverts and second being able to out face the copyright people. Unfortunately Ad revenue simply isn’t there and secondly Google has had to take down masses of copyright content based on the Google – do no evil – Moral Code.

Watch this video however and you’ll see big changes afoot.

Basically the big content providers like Viacom and Disney are saying to Google, you can show our material… but we want the traffic. The result is the little guy is being phased out.

Let’s look at Google Adwords – this has had a recent makeover as well. Previously you had choice of where to place your adverts, this meant you can restrict your advertising, but Google are hiding this functionality in their interface, meaning novice users are being forced to advertise across the ‘Network’. Advertising across the network is a complete waste of money.

Firstly, the return on investment is a fraction of the return on investment if advertising solely on the main search engine. Secondly to configure Google so that your adverts show up only on website that is relevant to you is a nightmare to set up, you need an in-depth knowledge of the websites your advert might be advertised on. And thirdly, Google Adsense the mechanism that is supposed to payout to people who allow advertising on their website, simple does not pay.

Let’s look a little closer… if you’re a small business wanting to gain clients, well you wouldn’t to have adverts on your website, if you’re a minor celebrity, well adverts are more tempting, but the returns you might expect are $100 per month – well it just isn’t worth the aggravation. Being paid $0.001 per click just isn’t worth it.

Well what does this all mean; it means Google is starting to run out of ideas. They have built an exceptional business based on an exceptional Moral Code, but this starting to break down. As more businesses become more vested in the internet and start to rely more heavily on Google they are forcing Google to adhere to their rules of making money.

We are in the midst of a revolution, but while Google is here now and tomorrow, it may well not be in 10 years.