Its their website; they have every right to do what they like on their website. You and I can list other websites how we like on our sites, why can't Google?
Don't forget IBM, Motorola, and Nokia - All giants in their own time, all fallen by the wayside. Not internet based but they were each huge and dominant players at one time.
Google's size, power, and the majority of people using it for searches gives Google the "right" to dictate policy.
the usa is not a monarchy yet, but can it be bought by s valley "contributions" ? it is under the current administration.. that we can't argue dems are tied to s valley and they aren't going to move against ANY s valley company It's not politically correct and it.s bad for campaign contributions again , just because you are big does not give you the right to violate us law just because you like using the product does not make it legal under US antitrust laws people liked to buy Rockefeller's oil in 1904 too but it was still a monopoly G's "hey we are are not that bad" argument in the eu antitrust lawsuits is that they could lose that monopoly quickly if someone else comes along essentially they are conceding they are a monopoly but saying "the G is hot to- nite..but where we be tomorrow?" ok how ridiculous is that defense? So let us run a monopoly until bad luck hits ? Morgan Rockefeller Gould Frick could have all plead that idiotic case to the justice department in 1903 no, not under us law, having a monopoly gives you less rights and more regulation this is the same principle as applied to jp morgan and citibank ,boa,aig lately.... essentially "the government thinks you have gotten too big and are a threat to our economy and it will be better for you if you get smaller because you are too systematically important" the implied[or actual threat] is Sherman act anti trust lawsuits[ such as the eu are doing now] the legal concept is the consumer is more likely to be harmed under monopoly conditions remember the consumer of g is not only the search user it is the publisher publishers [ie small business owners] have been screwed for years because of this monopoly they self deprecate about the latest "SEO" bs ... and miss the point "what am I doing wrong?" boo hoo people spend endless hours on this forum hand-wringing about arbitrary rules and gossiping about the latest Matt Cutt SeO proclamation its all a shell game >>>>A D W O R D S<<<< is the beginning and end of the story the more they screw publishers [ie small business] the more likely they will pay for placement. g man missed earnings today so expect the beating to continue until morale improves
Rockefeller's oil business gives him every right to do what he likes in his oil business You and I can do business with anyone we want why can't Rockefeller do business with anyone he wants? so then there was no reason to break up the [Rockefeller] standard oil trust? the ATT trust? that was a mistake? they should have allowed it because... " they have every right to do what they like on their website[business]" So as long as any one else can start a business from scratch.. that allows a monopoly under US law? I am a free market fan... is it just g man or can anyone run a monopoly? is it "who you know?"
You are only taking things so seriously and overlooked the most important thing as a webmaster. Instead of rankings try to focus on your targeted audience and provide them what they need and expectations.
I think we should all get together and build our own search engine and call it the peoples search engine and then we can decide who is ranked in the search results. Oh but I forgot there is bound to be one of us some where shouting that we did not have our site listed or ranked because of XYZ that was not fair. The search engines are not fair and they do want to get ride of the trash/rubbish. They all have a right to do that. All that we have ever been asked to do is provide good quality informative sites that people want to visit. Instead we have to try to manipulate the search engines into giving us better rankings etc. That is why I love this job, it is a challenge to stay one step ahead of the fox. As the saying goes "The game is afoot" embrace it and revel that you can some times if not always conquer the giant!
Honestly I think Google has been quite innovative and clearly their model works. They do typically provide amazing search results. Thus people prefer them to other searches. All the criteria they provide is quite straightforward. At least that is my opinion. Regardless of weather you like them or hate them. No one can argue that they have built a business that has changed the world.
I have noticed that Russian search engines like go.mail.ru give much more relevant results than google. There is one catch though.Many of the results are pages with malware.
How about this analogy absolute power corrupts absolutely you are in a business we want to muscle in on.. like Tony Soprano you don't want to sell? what if bad things happen? http://www.businessinsider.com/google-wants-to-kill-yelp-2012-12 what they are is cheap thugs they got all the seo types fleeced thinking that if they play along with the "rules" that you will be rewarded that may be true .. for a month or two until they change the arbitrary rules [google update panda etc etc.] that they conjure up ad nauseum to make you dance liker a puppet iin service of their monopoly. Its a win lose deal they win you lose. If you do this for a while you will see whats really going on and the bs they use to justify the exact same self enriching things Rockefeler ,gould,and JP morgan did 100 years ago Bring the Sherman act down on these 70% ers recently yelp reported their earnings In the subject of Google trashing them in favor of the monopolys own competing content came up "In July, WSJ reported that Google was promoting its own Google+ local listings ahead of links to Yelp even in cases when a Google user includes “yelp” in a search query. An internal Yelp presentation said Google “appears to be intentionally serving up search results that contradict the users’ intent” in order to favor its Google+ local listings. It wasn’t clear how frequently such searches promote Google’s content over Yelp’s. At the time, a Google spokesman said: “We build Google Search for our users and our goal is to provide the right information at just the right time.” But now, Yelp may be feeling the affects." Google, obviously, continues to make changes on their site, both competitively and algorithmically, but fortunately, we have incredible consumer content,” Mr. Stoppelman said. “And so one way or another people ultimately do find their way there, no matter what roadblocks tend to be put up, but that can affect growth. And so could we have grown even faster than 40% year-over-year if Google wasn’t leveraging its positions, its monopoly position, absolutely, but we don’t really know what that number could have been.” site;http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/10/23/the-real-issue-hurting-yelp/?mod=yahoo_hs rather than self flagellating that you "are doing something wrong" I would urge you to look at the comments of some of the biggest players in the financial press which does not present the "bought and paid for" silicone valley version that "you can make a difference if you obey the panda" I would also urge you to read the qoogle shareholder reports where they disclose the extent of their monopoly even if they don't want to admit how dominant they are they must give certain stats as a public company there really is no other company in any industry that has such a total monopoly position The fact that no one cares is even more remarkable
The 1900 version of the same argument before Teddy Roosevelt brought the antitrust hammer down on the standard oil monopoly "Honestly I think Standard Oil has been quite innovative and clearly their model works. They do typically provide amazing lamp oil. Thus people prefer them to other using candles. All the lamp oil I have purchased from Rockefeller's Standard Oil that they provide is quite good. At least that is my opinion." Regardless of weather you like them or hate them. No one can argue that they have built a business that has changed the world." changing the world is the same thing that Rockefeller did before he made lamp oil widely available oil in USA people used candles for light so if you "change the world" you can violate US law?
I agree with free enterprise, but it seems unfair when the government benefit from an alliance that it is allowed to stay in tact. Bill Gates had to split his empire because they said he had a monopoly. Why did he have one? He wrote a piece of software that made it easier for everyone to use a computer. Then he wrote some programs to work on it. That was deemed as monopolization. In Google's case they own so much on the internet already and keep expanding. If you look at the annual report it might frighten some people with what they do own. The problem here is that the US government have an agreement with Google that they can have access to the information collected by Google. http://www.technologyreview.com/view/507441/the-us-governments-growing-appetite-for-google-users-data/ this is just one example of how they request information. The government's are not going to split Google up as they provide too much info too them.
It's stupid to optimize websites for search engines. Search engines must be optimized for websites!!!
Well, you think wrong and need to go and learn what a monopoly is. Google has plenty of competitors in all aspects of its business. It just happens to do it better than the others and searchers have voted with their feet to give them a bigger marketshare.
Google's power in the marketplace is a natural byproduct of relatively deregulated capitalism. We need to learn to work within the rules they set, as they will likely only continue to grow more influential.