Okay, so here's the thing. I've been seeing a lot of "Google bashing" lately all over the internet.
And though there are major problems that they do present... seriously... they're a hot mess, I think most this hate stems from the notoriously SEXIST manifesto about "women in the tech industry" from ex-employee/current asshole, James Damore!
(Click HERE if you want to read his psycho rantings for yourself!)
After Google (rightfully) fired his ass, MRA memebers (Mens Rights Activist) rose up from every basement to blast Google for impeding on James Damore's right to be a sexist asshole in the workplace!
Since then, more and more "Google hate" post have been circulating.
But the sad (and kind of ironic) thing is, there are plenty of "legitimate" reasons to criticize Google! Those that I'm going to talk about here as a matter of fact!
Starting with:
GOOGLE DOESN'T ABIDE BY MONOPOLY LAWS
Google, without a doubt, is a monopoly, even though somehow they've escaped the legalities that pertain to monopoly laws.
But my lovelies, I ask you this:
" Can you name any of Google's real competition?"
Yahoo and Bing are not even close in terms of search traffic. It would be like comparing Amazon to one of my girlfriends' eBay lip stick stores.
As someone in the field, I've been saying for years that Google needs more competition. The one cool thing about the early, "wild west" days of the internet were the many search engine choices we had:
- Excite
- Lycos
- AltaVista
- Infoseek
- WebCrawler
- Ask Jeeves
We had options where we got our information from. The problem with a lack of competition is that now, "Google controls the narrative!"
I see this more and more with friends of mine who do SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Which actually leads me to my next point:
UNEVEN PLAYING FIELD
When it comes to online marketing these days, small companies are getting the "ass-end" of the stick.
For those of you who don't understand online marketing:
Simply put, a company's online presence lives and dies with Google! And more importantly, being on Google's "first page!"
That's why SEO is so huge now. Because every company in their respective categories want to be found when those keywords relating to their business are entered!
SEO is an expensive investment if you want strong results in the search rankings. And only companies big enough to shell out thousands of "greenbacks" PER MONTH are going to win out.
I saw this coming when I worked Support for Yahoo! back in 2006. This is when Yahoo and MSN (before they became Bing) were still in the fight!
What's worse is, every year Google makes more new rules and stipulations when it comes to the rankings of their search results. So again, squeezing out little businesses and basically selling their page to the wealthiest bidders!
And for those who attempt to get "creative" and dabble with things like shady Link-Building or URL Cloaking, you run the risk of getting your website BANNED FROM GOOGLE indefinitely!
PEEPING GOOGLE
There has speculation over time that the pervs over at Google have been spying on us through software in their CHROME browser. This has finally been proven.
(Read HERE for more info on that.)
This should be considered a criminal act. But because of marketing laws that allow companies, including Google, to mine your browser for data, they skate right past this.
But unlike most companies, Google's leash is a lot longer. And they can get away with far more with your information. In fact, there hasn't been one successful case against them in terms of privacy breach!
SO WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?
I'm pissed as hell just writing about this if I'm being honest you guys! Even though I've already known most of this for some time. And the only solution I see is people having the "creative balls" to step up and "challenge the beast!"
I've been a big advocate for something I'm calling the "Lycos Project!"I'm not trying to bring Lycos back, I'm just trying to get those with the "know-how" to start building more and more independent search engines.
I'm also trying to get Google acknowledged federally as a monopoly. They shouldn't be allowed to have the kind of power that any other company who ran 95% of their industry would be penalized for!
So if you're going to hate Google, hate them for these reasons... Not because you identify with a disgruntle, sexist, low-level engineer with so much time on his hands he can write a 10 page manifesto!