Re:Google pays ‘enormous’ sums to maintain search-engine dom...
by collaborative on Friday September 09, 2022 @07:14PM
(#32786019)
I closed my small shop due to not being able to afford appearing on ads anymore, so I feel your pain. You are being downvoted because most people here benefit from the $$$ big tech makes from ordinary hard working people. And they think complaining about the unfairness of their practices is petty. Talk about lack of empathy
Re:Google pays ‘enormous’ sums to maintain search-engine dom...
by johnny35 on Saturday September 10, 2022 @06:21AM
(#32789323)
Thanks for this comment. I have personal experience with all of these frustrations and agree very strongly. I can see someone writing off this comment as just another rant but it really isn’t - you’re hitting the nail right on the head over and over.
The way Apple and Google have wedged themselves in as an interface and then gatekeeper to our customers is deeply pernicious. I respect what they have achieved but it’s deeply saddening to wonder if the freedom we had decades ago online was anomalous and not intrinsic to the medium.
Re:Google pays ‘enormous’ sums to maintain search-engine dom...
by nostrademons on Friday September 09, 2022 @05:49PM
(#32785322)
I have no idea, I left Search 8 years ago. I would bet on people responding to incentives, though, because that seems like a universal constant of human behavior.
Re:Google pays ‘enormous’ sums to maintain search-engine dom...
by effingwewt on Saturday September 10, 2022 @06:44PM
(#32795157)
That's a bullshit cop-out if I've ever heard one.
'Don't mind us destroying society, we are just following incentives!'
Swear I've heard that somewhere before though...
I have so many complaints about your product, it drives me wild.
How many people even look at organic results versus the paid-for ads that display at top?
It should be illegal for anyone to be able to purchase ads for another company's trademark. Apple, Google, and Amazon are all extorting companies by forcing them to buy ads to protect their own brand. (My own brand is being attacked by a competitor in this way, and it's ridiculous!)
The only reason anyone uses these systems at scale is that third parties were available in aggregate early on to provide content. You built your product off of our backs. And now that the power dynamic has shifted, we're cattle to soak for as much revenue as possible.
It also seems like the only reason Google is dominant is bad behavior. Paying for default search engine status. Being the default in all of their other unrelated platforms. Achieving browser monopoly.
I've recently started seeing Chrome ads and billboards everywhere. Google purchased a huge percentage of my city's billboard ad inventory for their "better on Chrome" campaign. It's as if Google knows this is the reason for everything. Where except for Apple devices is Chrome not dominant?
This whole cartel needs a muzzle.
Device companies should not be ad companies.
Ad companies should not be service companies.
Service companies should not be content and production companies, since they can favor their own and price pressure the rest.
We have a world where the top tech conglomerates are all of these and then some. They've cast a wide net and turned the whole world of consumer interaction into a supermarket, where we now have to pay for "shelf space" to interact with customers, pay to protect our brands from unfair sniping, pay to grow, obey asinine rules to build a product that fits their desired shape, integrate with their payments and login stack (so we're even less in a relationship with our customers).
It's a far cry from the open web of the 90's. Really bad for small companies, new startups, and even consumers. We can barely afford to build our products with all the margin that goes to Google, Apple, and the rest.
I wish the rank and file could feel this. :(