Just Say No to Google Opportunism

"No" written somewhere on an alreyd pretty dated surface with a red background.

During Nazi or Stalinist rule it was matter of life and death whether you were support the bloody regime or speaking out against it. Even trying to subvert it without speaking out publicly ended up fatal in most cases.

Nowadays we still have a choice as long as we live in democratic countries.

Nobody will kill or imprison us for opposing something publicly or privately. Yet when it comes to business the situation is already far worse it seems.

Without pleasing Google your business might end up bankrupt rather sooner than later. There are two ways of dealing with this menace: opportunism or independence.


Why Choose Opportunism?

I chose to call this post “Just Say No to Google Opportunism” because to me it’s what some marketers are advocating: opportunism in the face of an almighty Google.

Let me cite the definition of opportunism first so that we know what I’m talking about.

I rarely use Wikipedia as a source but this time they explain the term better than the dictionaries. It goes beyond the simple explanation to state:

“Opportunism refers rather to a specific way of responding to opportunities, which involves the element of self-interestedness”

Sounds quite innocent until now. What’s wrong with that? Aren’t we all a bit selfish? So far so good but that’s not all of course:

“plus disregard for relevant (ethical) principles, for intended or previously agreed goals, or for the shared concerns of a group.”

Before I try to show why Google opportunism is the wrong approach I’d like to summarize the points marketers usually make to defend Google:

  1. In case you want to engage in some kind of activism you’d rather have to deal with authoritarian regimes in Africa or the Middle East who commit real crimes.
  2. It doesn’t make sense to criticize Google’s decisions, instead you have to adapt to the new situation no matter how difficult it may be.
  3. Attacking Google is a waste of time and effort. You have to shut up and optimize even harder instead.

Most notably we should be thankful for any “free traffic” Google gives us and whenever the search giant decides to make us pay for that previously free traffic we can’t blame them for that change as far as I get the message right.

Before I go into details, let me cite my comment I posted on a debate which is a concise way of expressing my opinion here (I added some text decoration):

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I don’t agree with this stance. Calling out criticism of Google as “bashing” doesn’t make sense. Not everybody can make some impact in Africa etc.

You can change the world right where you are though. In order to do so you have to point out power structures and bad decisions behind closed doors.

Another common point is that Google sends you “free traffic” and thus we can’t blame Google is just weird.


One Corporation Owning the Global Information Superhighway

Imagine that in real life: just one company deciding where the streets are leading to and changing the city map over night so there is no traffic to your store anymore.

Well, it’s just free traffic, isn’t it? So why don’t we abolish democracy and let Google decide everything by itself?

Shutting your mouth and letting the top down monopolist do everything by itself is just plain naive.

Google controls the global information infrastructure while being a for profit corporation that doesn’t care about you and me.

The only [way] to do something about issues is to care yourself and to speak out where possible. A blog is a good platform to speak out.

Arguing that it’s enough to fight for the few breadcrumbs Google is leaving for us while taking most of it for itself is also pretty selfish.

What happened with Google Shopping is that Google has over the years pushed down most of the other [shopping] search engines and now capitalizes on being on top itself.

It’s no accident that Google is under scrutiny by lawmakers all over the world and it’s not just “bashing”.

Imagine one company owning the global transport system and making you pay for it over night. How dystopian.

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Google Controls Traffic – It Doesn’t Create it

There is no such thing as free traffic. You have to invest lots of time, effort and ultimately money to rank on Google so that organic search traffic is paid for as well. Also

the traffic is there no matter whether Google exists or not.

In case Google would disappear tonight I bet the traffic would still be around but people would be using other channels like Bing, Facebook or whatever means of finding what they want online.

Google does not create the traffic, it just channels it.

Google is a gatekeeper. The flow of traffic exist regardless of Google. Don’t thank the gatekeeper that there is water. Thank God for the free flow of water or traffic. In case the gatekeeper decides to block the flow.

I will blame him for making me thirsty instead of fighting the others who are dying of thirst as well. Now that we are talking about dying:

You think people are only dying in Africa and the Middle East? So we’d rather have to join the armed forces and drive the tyrants out? I don’t think so.


The Impact of Google on Life and Death

We can influence the world right where we are. Also there is no such thing as “the real issues”. All issues are real.

We don’t have to wait until people die to speak out against injustice. Just take a look at Apple and their slave labor practices in China. Nobody cared until dozens of people started dying.

Are people already dying because of Google?

Well, there are enough shattered businesses already because of so called Google updates and penalties.

I hear rumors of small business owners committing suicide after being hit by Google penalties or updates from time to time.

Even if there are no suicides yet we know that companies get out of  business and employees get sacked because of the changes Google introduces quite often. I lost clients because of them.

When one corporation rules a whole sector it’s even worse, almost the whole access to information in a society – like Google does in many countries.

It ceases to be just a matter of business and it starts to be the domain of law and politics.

A democratic society can’t allow one company to decide about the world’s information. Even worse when such a company has been funded by US intelligence agencies ever since its inception.

Thus just say no to Google opportunism and speak out whenever the market dominance of Google turns ugly.

In case you don’t want ExxonMobil, Monsanto or Google to decide what’s good for you make sure to raise your voice once it does.