Posts tagged as:

google antitrust

Google is not Evil. They just appear to be.

by Tim on January 11, 2012

in Search,SEO,Social Media,social strategy

Google is making lots of news this week and not all of it is for the right reasons. First, they introduced their Search, plus Your World enhancement (hereafter referred to as Search Plus because Danny Sullivan is a genius), incorporating social results more fully into the company’s search results pages. Twitter hates it, while Matt Cutts thinks it’s magical.

Me? I’m ambivalent. This has been a long time coming and, while I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon, I also think it’s incomplete, if for no other reason that so much of the social content that makes Search Plus attractive comes only from Google+. Maybe as Google+ use grows, Search Plus will become more valuable to consumers. But it’s way too soon to suggest how it’s going to affect business (though I plan to take a couple of guesses next week).

Speaking of the business impacts of Google+ growth, Matt McGee takes a long look at the growth of [Not Provided] as a referring keyword from Google. As I noted in the comments, the more folks log into G+, the bigger potential business impact.

What these two stories have in common is both present Google in a less-than-glowing light. In the first, Google appears to promote its social service ahead of alternatives such as Twitter and Facebook. In the second, Google offers its paid search customers benefits unavailable to those who don’t pay.

But are either of these “evil”?

You could easily argue that they’re not.

Now, before you get out the torches and pitchforks to storm my castle, hear me out for a second. If you made moves that benefited your bottom line and stuck it to your competitors, do those moves make you evil? Of course not.

So why isn’t that true for Google? Shouldn’t they get the same opportunity as you? (Ignoring for a moment any antitrust issues, of which I expect Google to face plenty pending the outcome of this year’s elections).

Actually, here’s the problem. Google’s stated mission is to “…organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” All the world’s information, universally accessible. Not just the information available on Google’s services and not just to people who pay them.

From that perspective it sure looks like they’re compromising their core mission some. That may not be evil. But if you sacrifice your values to boost profits, eventually you’ll end up with neither.

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Technorati Tags: Google, Google +1, Google Analytics, Google antitrust, Google Plus, Google+, Google+ Pages, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, social marketing, social media predictions, social search, social strategy

Tagged as: antitrust, Google, google antitrust, google plus, search engine, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, search strategy

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Biznology: 2 Huge Search Marketing Risks in 2012—And What To Do About Them

by Tim on December 16, 2011

in Google,Search,SEO

Most of the businesses I talk to increasingly have shifted their media spend towards paid search. And given its growth, who could blame them?

But, between the growing importance of alternative information channels and the possibility of serious antitrust oversight, next year will challenge Google with the largest threats in its history.

How can you be sure that this doesn’t turn into the worst possible time to start search marketing for your business? My latest post on Mike Moran’s Biznology blog, “2 Huge Search Marketing Risks in 2012—And What To Do About Them” seeks to answer just that question.

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Technorati Tags: Google, google, Google +1, google adwords, Google antitrust, Google+, Google+ Pages, marketing best practices, marketing predictions, mike moran, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, strategy, success, 2012 predictions

Tagged as: Google, google adwords, google antitrust, search engine, search engine guide, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, search strategy, sem, SEO

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Google removes marketers’ access to valuable data, but, maybe, doesn’t protect privacy. Have they lost their mind? (BREAKING)

by Tim on October 18, 2011

in Google,Search,SEO

Ugh. Google announced today that they’re going to make search data more secure by hiding search query and referrer data. Except for when they don’t.

Huh?

It seems Google is going to hide the query and the referrer on searches for anyone logged into Google. While this will only affect, according to Google’s Matt Cutts, “single-digit” numbers of searchers, anything that makes it harder for marketers and e-commerce types to segment their customers, well, sucks.

Now this wouldn’t be so bad if it applied to all logged-in customers for all types of searches. At least then Google could fully claim they’re protecting privacy. But, Google isn’t doing that. The data from paid clicks (i.e., the type Google makes money from), continues getting passed to your analytics tool. Not sure how that’s protecting privacy. Google’s got enough trouble with potential regulators right now. I’m not sure this approach helps them there.

And, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Google protecting users’ privacy. I have argued repeatedly that protecting privacy is in marketers’ long-term best interest. I’m just not sure this accomplishes much in that regard.

Google’s announcement came earlier today, so many details are still up in the air. But the best analysis so far comes from Danny Sullivan:

“Not only does the policy discriminate against the SEO side of the search marketing family, it also sends a terrible signal to consumers. It says that referrer data is important enough to protect — but not important enough when advertiser interests are at stake.

To be fair, Google is concerned that people are more likely to do sensitive searches that somehow reveal private information in referrer data through clicks on its free listings. But this could still happen in relation to ads, as well.

I appreciate that Google’s trying to get the balance right, something Cutts said to me repeatedly, as well as all this being a a first step that will likely evolve. I also appreciate what he said about even this already improving things: “What you’re getting today is better than what you were getting yesterday.”

But still, it would seem better if all referrers were blocked. As a marketer, I hate saying that. But as a consumer, it does provide more protection. And for Google, blocking them all doesn’t create this mixed message that might backfire on them with privacy advocates.”

Admittedly, his analysis and mine align pretty heavily. But stay tuned for more. I’m sure we’ll hear a lot about this in the coming days.

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Technorati Tags: advertising, adwords, analytics, attribution, attribution modeling, behavioral targeting, conversion, conversion rate, conversion rate optimization, E-commerce, e-commerce, E-commerce strategy, Google, google, google adwords, Google Analytics, Google antitrust, Google Buzz privacy, internet business, internet marketing, landing page optimization, measurement, metrics, online brand building, online marketing, ppc, ppc marketing, privacy, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, SEO is dead, what would google do