I rather have google ads show me things that I AM interested in then random junk which just waste space on a web page. Heck if you dont want that, then dont flipping use their services. Most people who say things like boycott Google and all that are just probley annoyed that their Adsense accounts got blocked or their banned from the search engine. Hey if you dont want that, dont do something which will cause it - simple. And if your one of those 2% people that actually didn't do anything wrong, then tuff. The world aint perfect - shit happens. Get over it. There are other things that you can use different to Google. Use them instead of wasting time venting out your anger. So what if you cant sell links and bla bla bla, hey Google is a buisness and it does what it wants. You DO have a option - and thats not to use it. I suggest you go find another search engine, email and everything else Google provides with free. A couple of months later you might come back saying the same thing about them.
i do not want to BOYCOTT google, i am quite sure that the Majority of people here want/and will to MAKE MONEY with the help of google. They might have a monopoly, yes. They might take over the internet..and be present in every corner etc....but still its our passion here as entrepreneurs to take advantage of this and let google work IN OUR FAVOR.
Google serves it's purpose of providing useful gadgets and gives most of it to users for free. They seem honest enough on the surface but digging a bit deeper will uncover that they are a corporation and money is the bottom line ... but that is why we all wake up in the mornings isn't it? I've already boycotted their search engine for search purposes because I have found better search results from some meta search engines (Jux2, Momma & QueryThe.Net specifically). When you only rely on 1 source you are effectively tuning out the rest of the internet and imposing a self-inflicted monopoly on the information you receive. Boycotting them when marketing my sites would be a serious folly though, they get (and give) mega traffic. I will, however, throw every other site in my bookmark collection away if they will do one thing for me ... make an OS to take Windows down. Ubuntu is doing a good job of it but is only taking small steps because they are not well known. Throw a name like GoogleOS in front of consumers and you will actually have competition in the operating systems market. Make it free (like the rest of their services) and you truly have something that can bring down the beast.
I like having one search engine monopolise everything. So much easier to target my sites towards what google look for, rather than make several versions of each site. I dont even attempt to get on yahoo/msn etc, if I make it by luck its a little bonus. I use google services as an end user too, they're free and do the job so I dont see the problem personally. You dont need to give them any info you dont want to give them, if you are that security conscious use proxies etc.
It is scary how much data Google can and will keep on everyone that uses or comes across their services. Gmail has stated any email that is deleted will still be on the system. Google is almost a monopoly in the search department, but they are also trying to get in on the Microsoft anti-trust bandwagon by saying their Vista search is monopolistic...funny, a search monopoly crying foul when the 3rd largest search engine starts to make inroads.
Excellent point!!! 1 reason to not boycott Google traffic = $ and no one does traffic better the Google.
i use google, the search enginge every day...for free. i use google adsense every day on my sites and get some cash in....for free i use their services, analystics, blogger blogs, news etc....for free They are a monopoly, but this monoply by choice and it happened not without nothing...eg. people as well STILL could have sticked to altavista, lycos or whatever SE there were years ago. But they didnt ebcause google was superior. People still are free NOT to use G, so what's your point ? I would RATHER complain eg. about people eg. who release "free firefox" with the G toolbar built in and RAKE IN a fortune since they get millions from google because millions of people use firefox and the built in googlebar. And every search, purchase happening through that toolbar is CASH which the firefox people get from google ! Google provides services which we people use every day and take advantage of it...and complaining about it is just..sorry....very, very pathetic. Without G there wouldnt even be a reason behind something like a "webmaster forum" or SE marketing or SEO or zillions of ways how to make money online. So..switch over to yahoo...etc....so is Y better just because they did NOT grow at the same rate as G ? They for sure would, as would any other company. Shove all people over to Y and ina couple years we had the same discussion what horrible monopoly Y is
I'm not defending Google, but I'm pretty sure Google is required by law to keep these emails a certain amount of time. Check other email providers...I'm sure they do the same.
To be honest, i am shock when i review this post. I believe no one can boycott google, even fbi or any other associations. 50 years ago, we use letter and phone as communication. Then something shock our mind - http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml. Internet become so popular because everyone can find the information with a single click. Internet = ultimate online library. Google take the lead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google If we can't beat them, join them. This is the main reason why sub board of DP ( adsence content ) have hugh traffic.
There is no sense in saying "no one can boycott...!" Not using something means boycott so if I don't use it, I've taken my first step. I'm not agaist all their services but for example I already removed adsense from 95% of my sites and will remove the rest as soon as I get the time because I don't like how they treat with publishers. IMHO
They don't exactly "feed" me, but they have great products and are continuously developing more. I happen to like Google.
I agree that dependency and monopoly can be very harmful for any industry. I was thinking about this for long time, this post surfaces the concerns of many people . Great job!
Google works great for it's visitors who are searching stuff, not quite for webmasters why try to monetize their services.
Without Google, Microsoft will be a lot crappier than it is now. Anyone remember their 2MB hotmail account? If MSN/Yahoo can hold on to their market shares in SE, Google will be forced not to be too aggressive.
Google is an awesome company but as many here said it, they're not there to work for webmasters. HAving said that, they've gone a long way in their relationship with us and having worked with Inktomi, Altavista, Infoseek, Lycos, etc and you name it, I can safely tell you Google is the most honest with us. They care to actually publish guidelines, offer reinclusions, make matt cutts available, etc... all that might not be openness enough but is more than anyone ever gave us before. Also, Google is a business - they're out there to compete with Microsoft and everyone else. So, really, I am scared to death of just one company holding all that power, especially in this rapid moving web scenario, but Google is still, at this point in time, the better one out there. Yahoo is closed, ban sites for no reason, etc....I don't see a reason to go with anyone else right now... Have any of you any suggestions? Live(Microsoft)? Yahoo(300 bucks per year for not much at all)? There you go : google is the best because all the others were not serious enough to do what Google came and did.