Google has come a long way from being a simple search engine rival to Yahoo and some might say it's come too far, too soon. They have lost their original focus and are simply a dominant 'no competition allowed' money making monster. My Adsense account was banned last year also as I believe a competitor was clicking my ads but because I couldn't prove it - it's my loss?! One poster stated that Google has 90% share of searches - this is incorrect, it has around 65%-70% on a world scale. Bing is the closest rival in the Western world and if the Chinese Search Engine BAIDU ever goes global then Google will have definite competition. At the moment Bing and Yahoo are not dominant enough in the AD sector to rival Google and this must invoke competition laws in some countries, surely?! I know the UK is looking into the competition laws regarding SE's at the moment but you can't stop people using Google and as long as it is there then it will always be used. I believe there is a Google Conspiracy on many levels: 1) Google Is the US Government - Based solely on the fact that Google adheres to Federal requests for information on specific users details and search parameters. Google says that they do not do this but they do. The US gov needs Google to be this powerful as without it they couldn't 'spy' on as many internet users! 2) Google Finance Themselves - Let me know if this is wrong: When an Adsense account is banned - there is a message that states the original advertiser will be compensated for their invalid clicks (the Adwords User) and refunded the amount back into their account, I had £282 in my account when I was banned and I'm damn sure that the money did not find it's way back to an adwords account. Google Keep the money for themselves. 3) If it Ain't Google - It Ain't In! - Less a conspiracy and more of a fact. Page One of Google is inundated with Google products. Have you noticed how your blogger site has been moving up recently. Page one is full of - You Tube Pages (Google Owned), Ebay pages (Google Funded), Google Adverts, Google Local Places, Google Shopping products and with Wikipedia making up the rest how the hell are SEO companies supposed to compete with it? All this is of course unfounded but if Google would stop being so secretive about their codes, ad systems etc then people might return to having some faith in them.
Another thing that gets me about all this Google update madness is this: If you are a tradesman such as an Electrician or Plumber you most likely will have a five page website with a standard set-up and probably that site is never updated and may not have many links coming to it - yet it could be vital to your business and ongoing success but you won't be on Page One of Google, NO, you would have to become part of Google's Business Pages to be found on Page One. - This is wrong and something needs to be done for the good honest folk out there just trying to make a living!
Hi, I don't know about conspiracy. However I believe that we should not fall into the hole of demonizing Google. Google has its power because it gets an access to data resources. Websites owners are those that provide the data resources. So the real power is of website owners, to decide if Google will have an access to data or not. This should be the message. Our message should be purified and simple: 1. We have the power to decide if a search engine will get an access to our data or not. 2. We are ready to use this power whenever search-engine stop to be our counterpart and start to behave like our enemy. 3. We will use our power to block Googlebot now 4. We will encourage people to use other search engines by spreading a message on our website. So let me rephrase you. The new message is: If it Google - It Ain't In!
As with other industries.. it is to our disadvantage if only one company dominates the market. You are very passionate abt this as you have great valid points and surprisingly I read everything you wrote. Unfortunately.. this has got to be a bold and collective effort for it to work. Maybe start a movement first..
The problem is that there are thousands of those "good honest folk" out there in the same niche with the others trying to make a living in that same niche. Only ten of them can be on any search engine's first page. That is not a conspiracy. It is the statistical facts of life.
Wow, that's a pretty extreme maneuver. Good luck! Personally, I'm gonna stick with G, cause that's where the money is, but I understand and sympathize with your point of view.
I saw a movie once about a hiker that walk around the world. There was a scene in the movie that left strong impression on me. At some point was injured in his ankle. It took him few days to decide and stop for resting. He say something like this: "You must first admit that you are wounded and you will have to stop for some time. Only when you admit your injury, the recover process can start." Thank you for your answers so far folks. I am tracking. Please keep response to this thread. The discussion is the important thing here. To realize that we are seriously injured and we have to stop our everyday walking in order to recover. For those of you who are ready for action, just do and the most important - spread the message. I believe that one month of massive pressure will change some of the rules of the games. We must make this message crawl virally and massively and reach into Google board: Having the ability to slap Google back by blocking it and give favor to other search engines.
Google has billions of pages indexed. Many billions. If you were to succeed in blocking their bots even from millions of pages, that would still be a tiny fraction of one percent of their index. Google sends me about 35,000 visitors a month, or 58% of my website's traffic. I have no reason for — and no intention of — cutting off that traffic.
Very defensive point of view. I respect your opinion and hope no one will kick your balls. That hurt! The beauty of your answer is that you created a metaphor between Google and your balls. If this is not a red light that what red light is? Is Google your balls?