Eleven years ago the internet was like the world back in the dark ages. Wonderful things where happening all over it but no one would find out about it. It was growing so quickly though that a way of finding out the information you are looking for easily was a must and waiting to be filled. That huge need was covered by Google. Since then, this company has turned around to be a multi-million company with millions of dollars of profits each year and one of the most powerful companies on earth. It’s power comes from the responsibility of controlling information. When a king was once asked what he would like to have as a weapon to conquer the world he replied:
Information! Give me all the information i want and i can conquer the world!
That is more than true these days. Every day billions of searches are performed by internet users on Google alone. Millions of sites provide information that search engines have acquired. But why did i say “control” information rather than index? Well they have developed an algorithm in order to produce the results for the search term provided that is far from objective. Which result comes first and which ones are buried in the last pages or not shown at all does not solely depend on the term itself but in many factors. An example of information control is Google China. Because of certain limitations on the information that can be served to Chinese people, Google was forced to remove a huge list of sites from their result pages. Now, you would say, what could they do? Well, remove themselves from that market. But, silly me, it’s a huge market and they need their business! I am not blaming them in the end, i am just saying this to validate my point about information control.
And this is not dangerous by itself. In the past 4-5 years this company has started expanding it’s web all over the internet. They acquire many sites and establish themselves on our daily internet usage. I mean think about it for a second. You open your browser. That is Chrome. If it’s not, i bet it has Google toolbar installed. You homepage is Google. You open your Gmail. Then you check out how your blog did over the day with subscribers. Yup, that’s FeedBurner. Then, you visit Youtube to have some fun or find something you are looking for. Now, this is most of your everyday online activity and it’s all Google! I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter is next…
But why is it dangerous? Well, a company with such a monopoly over a market can actually do almost anything without any of us being able to react. Did they sabotage Google on China? No, they keep on using it… And believe me, even if that happened in the States we would keep on using it . By the way, i know there is a case where Google was asked to provide logs and they denied it. They were prosecuted and won if i am not mistaken. But where did they do that? In a country they know very well they can’t be banned. Way to go! Now, here’s one more thing to think about. How is Google different from Microsoft these days?
All these made me think for a long time now. But what really started worrying me about the future of our online life is the attitude of the company the past couple of years, towards us, their users, and, there are two specific things that made me write this post and share my thoughts about the situation with my readers. For starters, i was asked to investigate on creating a small script for Google PR retrieval. I have seen many sites do it, providing banners and stuff, so i was always sure that there must have been an API. Well after a short search i discovered that, not only an API does not exist, but they have a pretty cryptic way of providing that PR.
To be exact, officially Google provides it’s PR data to the Google toolbar, and that only. To pass on that info to the toolbar they have a complicated URL that resides on an even more complicated algorithm. But, they should know better. If you want to hide infomation you shouldn’t count on the algorithm but on the internal state of the algorithm creating the complicated output. Luckily enough, there are some perl and php scripts that do imitate the behavior of the toolbar. They say though that Google might change the algorithm again so the programs will stop working. All in all it’s kind of a mess. But, here is my question. Why? Why try to hide this information that has become so valuable to all bloggers (and not) out there. Is it server load? Google can’t handle that? They won’t make me believe it. If it’s not that then what? They have stuffed PR down our throats all these years as the ultimate way of knowing how your site ranks out there and they are trying to hide it? Don’t you see there is something hidden behind the bushes there?
After this experience i was pretty mad at Google and the way they start treating us, their users, their power for crying out loud! And then i read this article about someone that his AdSense account was suddenly disabled, for no exact reason with over $700 in it. Now, that is not concerning on it’s own. If you read the article though you will see that he tried to contact them several times, with no luck and finally he sued. This is frustrating but what makes it even worst is what the Google representative responded when the Judge asked her why they disabled his account (she even didn’t know!)
Google can terminate your account for any reason
Now isn’t that concerning? When i read one thing popped into my mind. A roman galley where slaves could be executed or thrown overboard “for any reason“… I know it sounds extravagant but it illustrates my point. I think that they started thinking of themselves as God (or the Roman Emperor) and we are all just common users, but, they forget we are their power. What’s even more concerning is that we feel powerless over them, “Google does, it’s right!”.
You don’t believe me it’s like that? You feel i am exaggerating? Think about this. How many times have you changed what you wrote on your post just to include certain keywords that Google might like? How many times have you removed content that Google wouldn’t like? How much dependant is your site income from Google AdSense? How anxious/frastrated/sad/worried/happy/… your blog’s PR makes you? How much your income depends on it? Answering these questions you will see that you are much more hooked on too Google’s products than you thought. That it defines the way you blog or surf. You will see that it defines your everyday online activities more than you imagined. Heck, i even visited Google more than ten times while writing this article!
So, essentially what am i saying with all this rumbling? Stop working for Google! Let Google work for you! Heck with the Google bot, their AdSense policy, their PR and their stupid attitude over us. I am not saying stop using Google as your search engine (i know i won’t!). But stop depending that much on all their other products. Use Yahoo! for your mail (it’s not as good for many of you but stop hooking yourself on Gmail). Use among.us or SiteStats or WordPress stats or some other stat provider rather than Analytics. Use affiliate marketing or whatever else it’s called (i’m clueless so i won’t go deep here) rather than AdSense.
One last thing. Here is what i want to say:
Screw you Google! I use you, you don’t use me!
What do you have to say?
Hey Stratos, I like what you did with your theme. That aside to me it’s obvious why Google would change their algorithm so that third party software can’t pick up the PR of different sites, it’s because they want to retain control. Everything with Google is all about control. That’s why the googleslap people who have the audacity to do paid posts, because if they allowed it they would lose control over their advertisers.
Google is not happy with what they have because they want it all. What they must remember is that they are where they are because of us. We, the users put them there and if they piss enough of us off we can take the power away from them.
I don’t know if I should be commenting here. I am basically very confused if I agree with you or not.
Agree-
1) Dependency on Google
2) PR algorithm
3) Case of Aaron
But then, they still provide BEST of the services and almost ALL of them are FREE (unlike Microsoft). You took Google China as example. But let me tell you, 99 out of 100 times I don’t need to go beyond 2 pages of Google search whenever I am looking for some info. That means “I am using Google” and not the other way around. Its true that some search results are manipulated/inaccurate, but then other search engines aren’t any better.
They do have issues with Privacy, over-domination etc, but still I believe they have a better business model than many others.
Well let’s say I am used to Google services, they have expanded to a large extent almost covering all the web user requirement.
Whether you are online to make money or want to sell your products, you want to open documents, create blogs or check emails – Google has all the features which entices most of the web users as they are free to use.
By the way the “dangerous” is spelled as “dengerous” in the title ..
I love the way Google evolved quicker than other companies which are still online.. one thing that we all can learn is – Work smart like Google 😛
@Sire: You are absolutely right! They want the total control. And this is concerning. That’s what made me post this. I also agree about the source of their power. It’s us! But i disagree about us taking it back because i think that people feel powerless against Google. How many users have had their AdSense disabled for “any reason” and they did nothing. Just one went for it…
@Raju: Even if you are confused you add valuable thinking to the conversation so i’m really glad you do comment. Now, to the point. The free quality services is what makes them even more “dangerous”. Even more people use their services getting hooked up with them and not able to see any alternative.
As for the search results i also, in most cases, don’t go beyond page two but nobody can guarantee me that the last pages contain some other useful results.
As for their business model, it’s ingenious! But domination is the problem i am talking about here…
@Rockstar Sid: First of all thanks for the correction it slipped my attention…
I do agree on “Work smart like Google” but the point here is we are making ourselves voluntary hostages and Google is starting to take advantage of it. And what’s scary is what is around the corner…
Thanks guys for stopping by and adding valuable food for thought to this conversation…
Someone told me “Hitler was worried about Jews domination and hence he tried to eliminate them” 🙂
Google dominates, cos they are good. Only one thing which worries me is whether they will be able to handle this domination. Too many services = too many users. The time might come when they might not be able to please all. I guess it’s already started!
What you said is all true but all Google cult just like the mac cult are so much in girly love with it they just don’t want to accept the reality !
@Raju: Well Google is Hitler or the Jews? Because for me there are not Jews here. Just someone trying to take over and we have given up our rights…
@Ehsan: I think you see the point just right… We think Google is God and we are powerless against them…
All your base are belong to us !
do no evil 😉
@Stratos, Ehsan,
Now this is turning funny 😀 I do not understand this “we are powerless against them”. You wanna challenge Google? do that! Anyone can challenge Google. It can only make things better.
I thought Tennis is becoming boring when Federer was dominating so much until Nadal came along 🙂
@Raju: Maybe you didn’t get it right or i didn’t make it clear. What i mean is that most of the online users “think” they are powerless. BUT we are not! The power that Google has is because of it’s users and if the users go away Google will wash out too…
@Ranjeet: Well it seems they are forgetting about it these last couple of years….
Exactly, I agree with you here, and that is why I feel all these apprehensions about Google dominating is pointless. Google just can’t afford to let its users go. And users don’t think they are “powerless”, they just don’t get a reason to “revolt” against it (most of the times!) 🙂
@Raju: Well you have a point there but all i’m saying is as users we should try not to hand over all this power to Google. As i said use Yahoo!, Flickr etc. Also, there must have been many other cases of wronged users on AdSense but this guy was the one to revolt. Also, how about the cryptic stance on PR? I still don’t get it…
Flickr is still ruling the roost, Picasa is nowhere near to it in terms of market domination. Yahoo search is bad (except for their image search).
Adsense case is a mystery. It really raises some eyebrows, but due to their policies Google was unable to give proper clarifications, that sucks for sure.
And why should they reveal the API for PR? It is something internal to Google and they have every right to use it in a way which helps them.
@Raju: I will agree on Picasa. What i meant for Yahoo! is their mail. As i said in the post most people would say it’s worst than GMail but even so it’s not Google. The concerning thing on the AdSense case is their attitude after the incident. What does “any reason” mean? And i will strongly disagree on the PR thing. For once many sites have access to it making money from ads. Why as a developer shouldn’t i have an equal chance? Secondly PR has become a way to judge a site and see how well it does on various terms. It has become a parameter. And that is because Google shoved it down our throats. Since they did, and as a product on it’s own is doing well why not give free access? Where is that “community” sense of Google? All these to me are indications that they have started taking advantage of a monopoly they are building. Again i wish i am wrong but all i am doing here is just discussing my worries…
every new feature Yahoo mail has come up with in recent times has been a lame imitation of Gmail, be it integrated chat or sending SMS. Unless they do something innovative, they won’t succeed.
And coming back to PR, it is still free, you have to install a FREE toolbar which does much more than showing PR. We must understand that every company has a genuine right to make money and so does Google. The fact is, till now, they are doing that in a right way and I don’t foresee anything which shows them making money the wrong way (at the expense of US, the users).
@Raju: Well let’s not start a flaming here about services. It was just an example of an alternative…
As for PR i am talking for API which means programmers. I am looking at this as a programmer/web developer not as an end user.
And let me put this this way. Neither does Microsoft but they have a huge monopoly. I am not saying they are illegal i am saying they are becoming a cold company that starts not caring about the base, the users…
PR is something “internal” to Google. It’s some algorithm which they use to rank individual pages, and they have openly clarified that it is not the sole criteria to decide the SERP. And what will programmers do with that? 🙂
I am not a fan of Microsoft. You got it right about them. It’s not only now that they have become cold, they have been like this since a long time!
Personally, till now, i haven’t found a strong instance to say Google is going Microsoft’s way in terms of “coldness” to users.
@Raju: Man you know and i know that PR is a criteria for many advertisers and it’s a thing that marketing bloggers are very anxious about. As for what programmers would do with that? Well here is a creative idea… Show the PR of the site of a commenter on your blog. That would be a nice plugin wouldn’t it? As for coldness i feel the same but the latest indications are a bit troubling if not scary…
Sratos, consider all the people who place adsense on their sites. What if we all decided that we’ve had enough and decided not to use adsense anymore. How can google collect money from their advertisers if there is nowhere to place their ads. We have the power but not the fortitude to use it.
@Sire,
All these hypothetical scenarios look good to read. “IF” we all decided that we’ve had enough and decided not to use adsense, Google would close down. But why would anyone wants to ditch adsense? Because of one Aaron? There are millions of people who are still making money through adsense. Thousands others get barred for genuine reasons (click farms etc). And in this case we don’t even know the other side of the story. I am no way supporting Google here, but just a point I am putting across.
@Stratos,
It has been great discussing here! Please keep coming up with enthralling posts like this 🙂
I worry about too much power being placed in the hands of one company. Think about all the data and information google has about us – now think if they became more powerful than the government or became the government. Information would be controlled by one entity, which may or may not want to tell us the truth and could completely control what we had access to.
Maybe I read too much sci-fi but I think it’s very plausible for big corporations to become what govern and control us.
@Sire: That’s the point exactly. We are the power of Google and any other such company. But we somehow don’t realize it…
@Raju: Well you know it’s not only good to read but it’s good to do if a company becomes cold blooded against us. If they stop treating us well we should stop being their users/customers too. The money people earn from AdSense are hard earned money they are not given away. And i strongly believe it’s not only Aaron’s case. I believe there are others that just didn’t mode against the company. And you know what? It’s not only that they disabled his account but the attitude after that. What does “for any reason” mean. This is his money lady, his hard earned – well diserved money. You don’t want to pay? You better have a reason! That’s what’s most concerning…
@Kim: Well in my opinion sci-fi is not that far from reality. And yes, if Google controls all the info that we end users get then imagine what she can do…. Remember the king mentioned in the post?
I agree that we are rely too much on Google services these days. And there services are no doubt better than the others. As a blogger i do try to optimize the site so it ranks better on Google as it is the search engine is the major source of traffic.
I think that as time progresses, we have more services giving fight to Google.
Google is getting to a size where they are becoming a monopoly, and they’re only getting bigger. When I read the article about the guy suing Google for around $700 and then heard them say Google can terminate an account for any reason, I just thought that at any moment, Google could easily screw over many many people.
@Madhur: You are right…. There should be more services as the time goes by but we have to support them as well…
@Funny Stuff: The scary thing is that they can screw up many people “for any reason”!
Stratos I am not saying that we should close Google down at all. What I am saying is that Google should remember that we are in a sense their customers and they should therefore treat us as such, otherwise they could very well lose our patronage.