Now more than ever website owners and internet businesses are realizing that Google is in total control of the free internet economy. Not just a monopoly but one that can effect the internet in the same way that OPEC can influence the transportation industry.
In its latest incarnation the Google pageranking scheme has taken another competing advertising target [1], the PayPerPost crowd [2]. Not only has Google controlled the contextual ads market via their strict Adsense policies but are rapidly using their position to eliminate and restrict competing advertising technologies and ideas.
So how long will it be before some Congressman or Senator decides that Google tactics needs to be investigated and controlled? Well probably as long as it took for them to realize that Microsoft has a stranglehold on the PC market.
The Competetion Speaks
CEO Ted Murphy, speaking on the IZEA blog, claimed foul play, and opined that Google is at the heart of a censorship conspiracy.
“Google has proved that PR has little to do with blog traffic, influence or relevance and everything to defending their monopolistic stranglehold on search and online advertising.”
“It is no coincidence that Google has gone after some blogs that utilize PayPerPost and many of our competitors services. We offer a very attractive alternative to AdSense and are leading a charge to provide real monetization for everyday bloggers. Unlike the Google AdSense black box, we are palms up when it comes to revenue share and give bloggers the lions share of advertising dollars that they deserve.”
“I find it laughable that high profile bloggers like TechCrunch aren’t being penalized in the same way. Perhaps it’s the fact that they use AdSense. Perhaps it’s the fact that they are silicon valley insiders and are invited to special Google events.”
"First text link ads" and now "Pay Per Post". Ooops! it might not be safe to post those words on your website from now on. Google is using bots to scan for websites so the use of this particular text may get you a PR of Zero! Linking to the wrong advertiser may also reduce your pagerank. The bot may start going after links to say a hundred competeting ad networks and penalize you for them.
Yahoo to the Rescue?
The yahoo ad network which seems to be the only direct competetion to Google may be the largest company that will be effected by the new Google standing. Though Yahoo lost a bit of its initial luster with it lack of international support, it is still popular with a small group of users. If Yahoo starts losing advertisers then maybe they will step in and put a stop to this mess. We can only hope. Maybe they will come up with there own ranking system as a lure to get more Yahoo ads users on board
Open Ranking
As always when the big boys get too full of themselves with their secret recipies and posturing they cause a fallout in the form of an open source movement. Is Google setting itself up for a an open source initiative for pageranking? Probably. If some group of determined minds sees fit they will create a competing network of ranking systems. Hopefully there won't be a throwback into 1996 where every other site was a site counter.
Happy Publishing!