Reasons to Regulate Google & Search
This article deals with the urgent need to regulate Google and proposes radical open source like transparency as a solution.
Do we need to regulate Google?
Yes, of course. We really have to regulate Google. The question is just how as it’s currently one of the most powerful corporations in the world while lawmakers are largely toothless.
Once the Google black box becomes transparent we can strengthen democracy and freedom of expression. Why?
Google is a dangerous global monopoly. Currently Google is in control of most of the global search market and thus the access to most of the information available (or not) on the planet.
At the same time Google supports oppressive dictatorships like the regime in China when needed or works with the US government on unmanned killer drones.
It’s Time to Regain the Control of our Data
There has been another article on PC World many years ago that deals with the unavoidable regulation of Google. It’s more aptly titled “Does Google Know Too Much About You?“. Over the years the question became a resounding yes!
In this post I want to summarize the reasons to regulate Google & search:
1. Google uses a black box algorithm. You can never know for sure how Google is deciding what sources will end up on top. Approx. 70% of Google users just click the top 3 search results.
The other results barely exist. Most people fail to attract search traffic without the assistance of an SEO company.
2. Google knows everything about you due to a multi-channel data collection infrastructure.
- Google search
- Chrome
- Android
- Analytics
- Ads
- Gmail
- YouTube
- tracking cookies
are just the most obvious data collectors out there. They can profile you like the NSA.
3. Google is not about the free market, it’s about a dominant market position. In search Google is a monopoly in most countries around the world. Many other Google products have also a monopolistic position.
Even in the US Yahoo, Bing etc. are just small players when it comes to organic search. Only in China and Russia there is serious competition left.
4. Google changes ranking criteria on a whim. Ranking factors sometimes are random and there rarely is a disclosure.
Sometimes Google even discontinues support for certain features it introduced to webmasters itself in the first place (like the nofollow attribute) without notifying them.
5. Google is a US based company but it manages and often denies access to information globally.
There is no real accountability to entities outside the US. So basically most countries in the world give away the access to their information to a foreign company.
6. Google is working with China. This is just the most obvious example of unethical behavior. They openly do not support the Chinese censorship yet work together with the regime on surveillance. It’s not just China though.
Google shies away from fighting against censorship requests due it’s for profit business set up. Even teenagers manage to force Google to remove content from its properties.
7. Google lacks any clear ethics. There are seemingly no ethical standards for search engines. Google itself does not adhere by any ethical standards whatsoever besides the anecdotal “Do no evil” slogan that has been completely abandoned in recent years.
This unofficial Google motto has been rejected by (then) Google CEO Eric Schmidt as a myth. Only webmasters have to adhere to the fuzzy standards devised for them by Google.
Why Google’s Power is a Problem
Google is a global super power. It controls the world’s information. It’s the ever present gatekeeper. We need democratic control of this behemoth.
It would be insane to give away the keys to the knowledge of humanity to a solely profit oriented multinational corporation like Google.
Disclaimer: While you might assume hat I’m a paranoid Google hater, I’m not. I wrote this on Google Docs originally.
I use several other widely known Google services. The reasons above are just common sense. No company should have the level of control Google has.
Exactly due to the fact that I use so many Google services along with Google search it is important to make Google
- transparent
- democratic
- accountable.
I don’t want to wake one day up and realize that Google has become too powerful to make it adhere to a code of ethics. With power comes the abuse of it.
I feel that both this article and the TC article border on paranoia. It is nearly disgraceful to accuse a publicly held company of the things that you are accusing them of.
Google is not a “dangerous global monopoly”. It is a dominant player in the search market who GOT EVERY PERCENT OF MARKETSHARE LEGALLY.
People want to use Google!!
I switched to gmail because…it was the best webmail product out there.
Just like I use twitter because it is the best microblogging service out there.
And my site is on WordPress because it is the best PHP backend that I have tested.
People use the things that they want to. If that means that Google ends up with data, guess what, it was given to them.
No one had their data stolen, taken, or pilfered. They gave it to them.
Turning my focus to you 7 points, I would like to offer brief rebuttals:
1. I did not use an SEO company, and I am #1 for my name. Fancy that. Also, when you have an amateur going against a professional in something, who is your money on?
2. If by data collection you mean data given to them, then this point is valid. I have spent time with nearly all of these nefarious services you name-and it gives usage data, not personal data.
3. Could you provide proof/a reference/something other than you ranting that they are not about the free market? It is odd that a company that hates the free market would do an IPO…
4. nofollow still exists-they just changed how it was handled. I followed this story closely-Cutts himself said that he thought we would figure it out. I blame that on SEO’s lack of due diligence. Im really sorry that Google does not email you every time they roll out an update to their proprietary product.
5. This point does actually not make sense. They do have a recourse-its called robots.txt.
6. I still would like proof of this claim-Google has better things to do than just yank stuff out of the index for no reason. While I am a US citizen, and will refrain from comment on Google China (not because I am afraid, just because I am focused stateside), I will say that it would be a reprehensible business move to get banned in China for not adhering to their censorship laws
7. No ethical standards? Do you know what a search engine is? Its a MATH EQUATION!!! How can a math equation have ethical standards?
Also, can you link to how/when Google has supported mass murders in China? Because you are implying that, and it is downright slanderous.
Google has no control, and it is not the gate keeper-without Google, all of the information would still be there, exactly the same as it currently is.
Also, please be a little more stringent in your fact checking and your language:
“The author has requested to remain anonymous – not for dramatic effect, but because of the backlash he would receive from the SEO industry and possibly Google itself. He also doesn’t want his company associated with the post.”
This tells me that he is afraid of the industry turning on him and his company-notice how he puts that first, and how Google is not a sure fact like the industry is? And how he is looking out for his company.
It also makes your last line basically moot, and a fallacy at that.
This is a poorly written, amateurish post, meant to incite fear and a run away from Google. Spend some time away from the computer-it clearly is affecting your judgement. I am removing your feed-almost all of it is negative anyway,just look at the “related post” on this article-3 of 5 are negative.
I like the picture, very nice. And a real great post.
Its a wonderful post. Thanks for putting your thoughts so precisely.
Some pretty strong opinions voiced here.
In my mind is Google too big? Well, in a sense if it is we made it so, by choosing them over others. I am not overly worried myself. From what i see they tailor their search results to the rule of the goverenment who’s area they are working in. The only other option is to have no presence at all, and that doesnt make sense. People change in time, so do governments. I dont thing google can be blamed for operating to a countries laws, however distasteful we might find them ourselves.
Yes it does seem that Google continues to unlock ways to know and monitor each and everyone us that is sometimes a little too close for comfort. However without Google most online marketers wouldn’t have a job right now.
Hehe too true Nick, the existance of Google pretty much makes my career viable.
Not quite sure how you would ‘normalise’ SEO. If there was one set way of achieving results, then your position in the serps will come down to how much of that thing you have done. In which case, that only favours the big companies with pockets deep enough to do a large quantity of that!
The only way really, is for Yahoo or Bing to make a dent in the search market, and take away Google’s position of monopoly.
[…] many people I want to thank that I’ve resorted to linking to their latest blog posts in this sentence; in fact, I even extended it to fit a few more in. It’s not just bloggers I want to thank […]
Google deserves its position due to the public perception there search is superior to any other. I haven’t found a better search engine although the new bing gives google a run for its money
I personally don’t like the way google changes its algorighims without and notice to anyone. Google can bounce your site around like noone else. I would like to see more trasparancy.
@new – yes, the google profile is extremely valuable. It is also one of the top URL’s displayed within the search engines. A certain value add for SEO’s
Anyone that has ever worked with google via adwords will know that google doesn’t care about anything other than money. It disgusts me the way they act throughout the world. They want to rule the world and it is quite obvious.
ANother old yet awesome post. Specially love the last point. LOL :D extremely true :)