Ok, Google might be evil. After all, the company churns out product after product feature after feature with no [intention or real] hope of them being profitable profit centers so that it can collect more data on users so that it can become the next-generation advertising platform.
We know that.
The company is synonymous with data mining on the largest of scales. We know that too.
But, the company is experiencing something of a major backlash online for - gasp - promoting its own products when people search for related keywords. Basically, you search for a city, they offer a link to Google Maps.
The horror!
I understand that Google initially set off on becoming a pure-search destination, with no human intervention and all… but to quote Chris Rock: “times change, people evolve.”
And, Google too has evolved with the times.
The day Google raised financing from venture capitalists, it changed.
The day Google decided to introduce ads, Ad Sense, it changed some more.
The day Google introduced its contextual network, Ad Sense for Publishers, the rules of engagement evolved again.
The day Google filed for an IPO, well, it changed forever.
Today Google is worth $150 billion on the public markets. Investors bid up the price by pouring in their nesteggs; when they do, they expect more. Furthermore, when advertisers buy keywords on Google, they expect more as well. In turn, when publishers add Google’s text links, well, they expect more as well.
No one seems to complain when they ad Google text ads on their site.
No one seems to complain when they receive checks from Google every month (even though someone should ask why it’s a blind revenue share, and eCPCs seem so low despite the average CPC advertisers pay according to public sources like Fathom Online, or better yet: what Google asks advertisers to pay when they turn to Google advertising).
No one seems to complain when they buy Google stock and see it rise 500% since the IPO price.
Yet… when Google decides to expand on their lead and increase their degree of financial leverage, people cry foul.
Wake up, get real, snap out of it.
We created the monster, live with it. We said that MSFT was a monopoly and we had no choice. Well, with Google, we have a choice. We “google” people and things, we don’t “yahoo” them.
If you are unhappy with Google (as many of my esteemed blogger peers are), then remove the freaking Google ads from your site. It’s really very simple.
Furthermore, by moving away from pure-search - as did Yahoo!, Altavista and others - Google creates an opportunity for new, “virtuous” players to come in and “not be evil.”
Plain and simple: if you were stupid enough to believe that piece of investor and public relations spin (”Don’t Be Evil”), then you don’t deserve to complain about Google’s ever-expanding pursuit of profit.
It’s called capitalism.
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