Boycott Google! 10 Reasons To BOYCOTT GOOGLE!

Yes this is a long post! No this is not copy and pasted (well it is, but only from my word processor) This is an original piece, and if you appreciate the effort, reward with green. More importantly though, BOYCOTT GOOGLE!

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Google’s motto is “do no evil” which is high and lofty goal for a multi-billion dollar corporation to live up to. At first I thought there might be some truth to their position, but as time has elapsed it has become very apparent that it is nothing more than a clever PR move which has worked very effectively. However, despite their vow, it has become obvious that Google is not special, and just like every other huge corporate entity, they will stop at no bounds, good or evil, to acquire the much coveted dollar.

* 1 - Google is Becoming a Monopoly. At this point Google almost has an effective monopoly on the search industry. Currently, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google on allegations of anti-trust practices. There are multiple reasons why this is bad for you, the consumer. At this point, if Google bans a website because it objects to the sites content, that site has now been effectively banned from the internet. With full control of the internet’s search engine, comes the ability to determine exactly what sites are allowed to be seen. As the masses continue to use Google, they give them the power to selectively censor and bury any website without checks and balances. Google is not yet an official monopoly, but essentially the only way to stop them is through a large boycott of their services.

* 2 - Google is a Marketing Company. Another strong reason not to use Google’s search engine, is the fact that they are first and foremost a marketing company. Google retains all their data, and use it to build comprehensive profiles on it’s users, in order to better serve advertisements to them. Reread the sentence now, but insert “XYZ Spyware Company” in place of “Google” Wouldn’t you stop using XYZ Spyware Company’s product if it was apparent they were mining your personal data, selling it to advertisers, and targeting ads designed to match your profile. If you think that’s an inaccurate depiction, realize that Google recently bought Doubleclick, who are not incorrectly labeled as the world’s largest spyware company. Google wants to sell you to their advertisers, and by continuing to use their search services, you’re letting them do just that.

* 3 - GMail (Unreliable, Insecure, & Spyware). GMail recently lost a bunch of people’s email. This is especially troubling for those that use GMail for their record keeping and business uses, where each email has the potential to not only be critical, but also financially and legally critical. Another reason not to use GMail, is the fact that even if you delete an email, Google still keeps it indefinitely. Not only does that have privacy implications, but what happens when/if the GMail database gets hacked and stolen? Credit card numbers, passwords, bank account numbers, and confidential material will be lost and/or stolen. In addition, Google scans the content of all your email and uses the text in the email to serve you contextual ads. Again, sounds like a neat way to say “spyware.

* 4 - Google’s Privacy Policies. Google has the lowest possible grade from Privacy International, a watch dog organization based in London. Google’s privacy policies have been described “an endemic threat to privacy” by the group,

* 5 - The Invasive Google Toolbar. The Google Toolbar is bundled with many applications (Adobe products, Java, Firefox, etc) from numerous vendors, usually with the checkbox to install the toolbar checked by default, much in the same way other malware and malicious toolbars are spread. Users who use the toolbar can also opt-in to Google’s spyware data collection service that records every website they visit. Although it’s still opt-in, the fact that many software publishers are paid to slip in the Google toolbar along with their software is what makes this suspicious.

* 6 - Google Bought DoubleClick. DoubleClick is in the business of keeping track of what you do, and then selling that data to advertisers. They’re a spyware company, and programs such as Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware both identify their cookies as dangerous. Google’s ownership of this company, combined with their own database, makes them the biggest threat to individual privacy of all time. Google now owns a spyware company, need I say more? Yes.

* 7 - Blogger Steals Ad Revenue From It’s Own Bloggers. Recently there’s been reports that users of Google’s free Blogger service who use the official AdSense widget to monetize their blogs, have a rotating, revenue sharing feature installed that they are not told about in any official or non official document, meaning that Google is stealing revenue from it’s own user base. Wow.

* 8 - Small AdSense Publishers are Treated Like Crap. Recently, there was a bot attack on the proxy sites listed at Proxy.org. What the bot did, was open up each site on the list, look for AdSense ads, and then click-bombed them to try and get the sites banned. Hundreds of webmasters received emails accusing them of fraud. Those that were not banned from AdSense were warned. None of the threats or bans were reversed however, even after a large amount of evidence was shown to the AdSense team, and hundreds of emails were sent in to show them that they were victims and not fraudsters. This is typical of AdSense, who seem to assume that it’s publishers are more likely criminals than actual business partners. Although I have an AdSense account, there is no way I will work with a company who treats it’s partners like criminals.

* 9 - Webmasters Cannot Sell Links. Matt Cutts, a Google employee, has come out against webmasters selling links on their own sites. This is to “protect” the search engine from manipulated results. However, this ignores the fact that link selling is done by all major websites. Slashdot, Forbes, the NY Times, etc all actively engage in link sales. Will Google punish these sites for link selling? Of course not! So why the threat to punish and devalue other sites?

* 10 - Google is Becoming a Web Statistics Monopoly. So now Google is buying feedburner, so not only do they have the RSS usage data from Google reader, but now they also have the largest and most used RSS tracking service, along with their data as well. Combine that with their Analytics data, as well as the information that is collected through AdSense (which includes each user’s IP address, OS, geographical location, previous web page, screen resolution, browser, etc. etc) as well as their other high traffic sites and their usage logs (blogger, youtube, etc) as well as their actual search engine data, and it’s apparent that Google has data on just about every personal and commercial IP address out there.

HOW TO BOYCOTT GOOGLE
So at this point you may be thinking that all of this is fine and dandy, but that there’s no real way to actually follow through with a boycott of Google’s services. If you’re still debating on how that would even help, I want to tell you that traffic is king. Take away traffic from a site, and the site will start hurting. By refusing to send your traffic to Google’s properties, you’re taking a stand against the mining of your data, the infringement and exploitation of your privacy, and the rise of the next corporate monopoly nightmare. Here’s how to boycott Google and love every second of it:

1. Google Search - Since about 2003, Google has been my only search engine. It seemed that MSN, Yahoo, and Ask were simply full of spam sites. Google’s search algorithm was obviously superior. It wasn’t until I decided to ban Google that I gave these alternative search engines a second try. I must say that I am not a fan of Live’s search results, but their image search is by far superior to anyone elses. In terms of text search results though, I was quite surprised with Yahoo and the consistent quality of the results. In my 100% honest opinion, I believe Yahoo serves less spam sites than Google does.
BETTER ALTERNATIVES:
Web search: Yahoo.com
Image Search: Live.com

2. iGoogle - The iGoogle page is a neat way to keep track of all the news that interests you from RSS feeds, as well as to install widgets that display other useful data. The iGoogle interface is clean and AJAX enabled, but that can be blamed on the fact that they stole not only the functionality, but also the look and feel (including the AJAX abilities) from NetVibes, who still manage to do a way better job than iGoogle.
BETTER ALTERNATIVE: NetVibes

3. What about AdSense, AdWords, etc etc? I personally don't make my off these or need them to advertise, so this doesn't apply to me. Of course, hitting them in the wallet hurts more than simply boycotting their sites. To start off, use Adblock+Firefox to stop giving Google money for ad impressions. Also, why not try alternative methods of advertising and explore the profits possible.

4. And what about Feedburner, Analytics, etc? There are alternative out there. Remember, Google is amassing data like there's no tomorrow. Do you really want to hand them over all the traffic, conversions, and RSS subscription details? I personally don't.

 

Nice rant...couldn't have done a better job myself.

99% of those who get kicked out of adsense deserve it

99% of webmasters think google has a vendetta against them don't have content that is worth 1st or second page ranking.

I don't have a solid opinion on the link sales as yet until I see it actively affecting rankings......At least the big boys with huge budgets won't be able to buy their way to the top....

 

I understand your initiative, but most people will just think you got banned by Google and you are hitting back for that reason.

Obviously if you were making u$ 1000 a day with Google you would not post such a thing and risk your income. Or would you?

I'm not saying I think that way, I'm just saying lots of people probably do.

 

How about also stopping using PageRank as a yardstick for directory strength?

 

yeah get rid of google

they only have a 80% market share in the uk i am sure we can get everyone to use yahoo instead


?

 

Not my directory. Nothing in my sig is mine. I sold those links, which Matt Cutts says I can't do.

And I am not banned by Google. In fact, I am almost at a payout. My AdSense is at $90 right now, and has been for the last 3 months when I pulled AdSense off all my sites and started to personally boycott them.

I practice what I preach.

 

Some good points but i still love Google. Keep in mind that Google is a business and they do sometime have to make business decisions. I think they are doing a great job of bringing order to the internet. There motto is something like "don't be evil" and i think they are adhering to it pretty well. I can't think of a corporation that i trust anymore than them. Can anyone else?

 

We are also victim of Adsense bomb but till date no solutions

 

I've never been click bombed and I still have my Adsense account (I should log in and see how to cancel it actually)

That's too bad though. That proxy bot thing got tons of people banned. I remember it so clearly because I had just sold my proxy network right before it happened.

 

wow nice post

But I think the most important thing to remember is that we, as webmasters, make up a small minority. If we at DP were to ALL boycott google (in theory of course), we wouldn't make much of a dent.

What we need to do is educate the common people. The everyday internet users have no idea what is happening in our little world. As webmasters, our sites are accessed by millions everyday. If we had even a small link that stated: "Boycott Google! Read why here", many more people would become aware of what they are doing and stop using them. Especially if they saw that same link on lots and lots of sites.

 

jquindlen are you telling us that you boycotted Google by blocking their BOTS and de-indexing your sites from their Search?

 

Very well said.

Let bring a Revolution .. Boycott them

 

But they give me so much free traffic....

 

I love Google. Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Adsense, Adwords, Froogle, Base, Analytics, Alerts, Checkout, Earth. All great stuff for free.

I'm not about to bite the hand that feeds me.

 

when banned from adsense, my indexed pages went dropping, but i still love google

 

Is it legal to monopolize the search engine market considering its all on the internet ?

 

Google exists to please the end user...not the webmasters....most of us manipulate the results for our benefit....

 

You pose some good points, but I really don't mind the google ads in my email.. it's not like they emailed me the ads or anything. Also, google is so easy to use and I didn't download the toolbar. If you download a toolbar you're asking for trouble regardless of who you download it from.

 

we cant live without google. that is the sad truth nowadays.

 

I gave ya rep for effort, but I'm sure agree with 100%.

Having just one big SE to contend with is easier than having many.

What if there were..let's say 5 BIG SEs all with 20% of market, and each one did things differently.

a) Us poor webmasters would have OCD not just over our PR, but on four more "authority" scales.

b) What if these other scales were somehow incompatible (like web browsers)? Now not only would we have to design sites for different browsers (with each of their quirks), now the SEO/SEM effort would be just as bad.

I do not like Google telling us we have to report paid links!
a) It is none of their business how I run my business.
b) I believe the only way to report these links is through Webmaster Tools. I.E. Google is saying either get an account with them, or be penalized! I'm not 100% sure this is even legal (it may be, but I see "red flags").

Overall, I find it easier to deal with just one BIG search engine. It makes things much easier. But, absolute power corrupts absolutely...Google is getting crazy with their demands!