Google is a Threat to the Republic of Internet.
Google’s motto used to be “Don’t be Evil” but we see more and more evidence to the contrary. Google has already moved away from a passive Search Engine, that simply provided information for Internet users, to an active interceptor of information for commercial gain. This trend is extremely worrying for all businesses and in particular any SME. If SME owners are not worried, then they have not thought through the consequences of Google’s attack on their very survival.
1. Republic of Internet
Let me explain what I mean by the Republic of the Internet. In a true Republic every citizen is equal and has equal opportunity to access the resources available. The Internet started as a leveller, namely it allowed all companies irrespective of their size and financial resources to compete for business. A vendors’ ability to compete on an equal basis within the Internet was irrespective of financial muscle or the size of a marketing or IT department.
Internet search engines rated and presented company websites on their results pages (SERP see Image 1 below), based on the relevance of the content of the website to the search query term (Keywords/Keyphrases). The more relevant the content the higher the website was placed in SERP. The Algorithm for a Search Engine decision making process, was designed to specifically identify relevance and sort out the wheat from the chaff. Money did not come into this equation and payment was frowned upon. Payment whether for links to make you appear to be more relevant, or for helping you to appear higher on the SERP was a NO-NO.
Image 1 – Google SERP – Organic Results
Of course nobody could figure out how to make any money out of searches, until Google announced its IPO and suddenly the world realised the value of Pay-Per-Click. These are the entries within the SERP that used to exclusively appear on the right hand side of the page. Website owners placed a bid for keyword/keyphrases in an electronic and automated auction, which placed the highest bidder at the top of the “paid” result on the right hand side column of SERP (See Image 2 below).
2. Stealth Pay-Per-Click
As Internet users became aware of the Pay-Per-Click concept and their location, users started to avoid the right hand column. Google responded by changing the format by adding the top 3 highest bidders to the head of the main body of the SERP as “Sponsored Links, with a different background. They chose the term very carefully in order to avoid calling it “paid”. “Sponsored” has a more cuddly and altruistic connotation that somehow makes it OK, whilst making the word “Paid” sound rather vulgar.
As time has passed on, the colour differential has faded away and there are fewer and fewer differences between the Organic Results (those shown due to their merit), versus the Paid (or the cuddly Sponsored links). The colour difference is now almost indistinguishable (See Image 2 below).
Image 2 – Google SERP – Organic + PPC (Pay-per_Click)
About the Author:
. Google My Business (used to be Google Places)
Google then introduced Google Places on their maps, which was useful if you were looking for a Car Park, Restaurant, Bar, Hotel, etc.. This passive presentation of helpful information did not last for long.
These entries started to make an appearance on the SERP, pushing down organic results (i.e., merit-based results) to further down the page. So if you search for “Restaurant near …” or “Hotel in …” you now get all of the usual 3 paid results, but these are then followed by those businesses registered on Google Map. You will only see the merit-based Organic Search results after you have waded through these Google selected entries. Depending how many places are on the map, the organic results were pushed further and further down the page (see Image 3 below).
You could argue, that we could all register our business on Google Map, then we will all come up. Wrong! Google only displays a selection of businesses based on a mysterious “rotation” algorithm, which at present is at least for free. There is no guarantee that Google Maps or their results will remain free of charge. Even if Google Maps continues to be free, forcing map entries to the top of the SERP is against the basic premise of a neutral search engine.
4. Google Product Push
This is very controversial, but amazingly missed by all the authorities, who have been looking into Google’s monopoly and the abuse of power cases.
Let’s take an example of Google’s Hotel Finder (or the Property finder). If you do a search for a “Hotel at…” you will now get 3 x Paid links on the top of the SERP page. Then you get “Google Hotel Finder” with the best deals available, etc., which could be as high as 10 results, followed by Google Maps entries and lastly the Organic Merit-Based results!!
You might wish to argue that there is nothing wrong with Google helping people find cheap hotels. Well you could be right, but then we have plenty of other companies who do this for a living, including Kayak, Booking.com, Expedia, etc. Google is supposed to be a neutral website search engine (or at least that is what it claims to be). So what exactly is wrong with this “Helpfulness”?
Firstly, Google can only obtain prices from those hotels that are connected to booking engines with an authorised API. For a booking engine to be “Authorised” or “Approved” it must be able to respond to rate requests every 2 hours for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7-nights rates, so the engine must be robust enough to handle such traffic. Consider the implications of this specification demand by Google. The booking engine must handle 7 queries, on a series of dates, every 2 hours, for every hotel that is registered on the booking engine. This is in addition to the booking engine’s normal traffic, namely the real clients making a booking on the system, then you can begin to understand the task ahead of a booking engine server. This means only large Booking Engines can cope with this level of traffic, with monthly costs of booking engines of this calibre as high as $200 per month, it is safe to say that only large hotel groups can afford to use them.
Secondly, appearance on the list of so called “Best Value”, requires the hotel to have a fully functioning Google+ account. So if you are on Facebook, or have your own website but not on Google+, then Google will not play (See Image 3 below).
Thirdly, once you appear on this list you will have to pay for the privilege of being clicked on! The cost of clicks on this link is far higher than the going price of Pay-per-Click bids, this can be as high as $10 per click, with no guarantee of getting a booking. The visitor is just browsing, so the hotel is still paying for the visit, but not necessarily getting a booking. The sheer cost, versus the doubtful conversion rates, make this option only valid for those with deep pockets.
Image 3 – Google SERP – Organic + PPC + Google Places + Hotel Finder
So in summary, the hotel in question has to be a Google+ user, has to use a meaty enough booking engine to match Google’s high traffic demand, and has to have deep pockets to pay for participation. None of this is in line with the premise of a neutral search engine.
Google is no longer pushing the envelope but has simply ripped up the concept of neutral search. Google is also threatening the livelihood of smaller vendors such as Smal Hotels, Estate Agents, Restaurants, etc., as well as some of the larger players such as Kayak and other price comparison sites. This was not supposed to have been the remit or the function of a search engine in the Republic of the Internet. How this has slipped passed the Senate Committee or the EU Commission is just beyond belief.
Conclusions
The consequences are extremely grave for any SME that is a Location Dependent business. You are a location dependent business, if your transactions and consumption of your goods and services are co-located in a fixed place. These include pubs, restaurants, hotels, fast food outlets, take away, Dentist, Doctor, Accountant, Kennels, etc. We look after a number of small hotels websites and we are seeing the negative effect of this already in the SERP position, traffic levels and reservations.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. If Google is successful with this product then any business can be in the line of fire. Next it will be Insurance Companies, Estate Agents, Airlines, Builders, Lawyers (perhaps not them as they will not take this lying down), and the remaining independent industries we have left.
Do we really want our entire economy to be reliant on Google? Do we trust Google to be the sole arbiterator of who gets what traffic, when that decision is based on how much the business is willing to pay? This is like Highway Men of the bygone days who stalked travellers just outside the city limits and robbed them blind.
Action
What can you do if you have a small business or your business is under threat from Google? At the very least:
- Contact your MEP & MP to press for an EU investigation. This time the investigation should not be carried out by bureaucrats, but conducted by a committee made up of people who understand the Internet and the impact of Google’s action on businesses.
- Write to the European Union Competition Commission and raise the subject with them and ask them to investigate and take action.
- Lobby your Government to take action and protect your business against Google’s predatory practices.
- Remember Google is one of the Multi-Nationals adept at dodging tax, so by destroying local businesses Google also reduces Governments’ tax revenues, VAT income, and reduces contribution to the local governments that will directly impact even those without a business to worry about.
- Tell others about this article and encourage them to take direct action.
