Google's Tough Week in Review

Governments and Competitors Line up to Take Shots

[Brett_Tabke]

Few weeks have seen so many shots taken at Google by the main stream press around the globe. Govts took some strong shots at Google as well.

Maryland Just Passed The Nation's First Tax On Digital Ads:

Maryland on Friday became the first state to enact a digital advertising tax targeting large tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook, which could be followed by similar taxes in other states.

[forbes.com...]

Google and Bing Go at it:

The two tech giants have been trading barbs over Australia's proposed new law that would force the tech giants to pay news publishers for the free news snippets they display on their service

[businessinsider.com...]

Google Partners in SE Asia are Worried - or are they?

Google's threatened shutdown of its search engine in Australia over a proposed content licensing law would ripple across industries, saddling partners like Apple with a sudden revenue gap and retailers as varied as affordable Kmart to upmarket David Jones with a supply of potentially useless gadgets.

[economictimes.indiatimes.com...]

Wow Search Issues: Google bans ads for locksmiths in Belgian search results:

The reason given is that most if not all ads appearing in search results are from unreliable or even crooked locksmiths who take advantage of those in need – someone who is locked out of the house at night, for example – to charge exorbitant prices for shoddy workmanship.

[brusselstimes.com...]

Microsoft pushes US to copy Australia's media code

Microsoft has appealed to the US government to "copy" proposed laws that would force digital platforms Google and Facebook to pay media companies for news content in Australia.

[itnews.com.au...]

Australia may have to say goodbye to Google

Imagine a world without Google, the search engine so pervasive it's the starting point for more than five billion queries a day. That's the reality facing Australia, where the tech giant is threatening to unplug its homepage in a standoff with the government.

[gulfnews.com...]

Last round as a new war of words escalates among Big Tech

The parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s media bargaining code — which would force Google and Facebook to pay substantial amounts to news publishers to carry journalism — unanimously recommended the bill be passed.

[inma.org...]

The Guardian says Google News Sucks:

Monash University research finds Bing and Ecosia delivered substantially more professionally produced news in the top 50 results compared with Google

[theguardian.com...]

Google Play Store and Apple App Store Targeted by North Dakota Lawmakers

The sponsor of the bill, State Senator Kyle Davison (Republican, Fargo), told a press conference that the standard 30% commission on sales charged to app developers by the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store has the effect of "raising prices and limiting choices for consumers."

[investopedia.com...]

Major Mac-head, says it is time to switch to DuckDuckGo:

Google is better, but I still use DuckDuckGo

[9to5mac.com...]

More search problems: iPhone, iPad users can't Google search the word "Asian" because Apple's adult filters think it's probably all P*rn!

Selecting the setting for "limit adult websites" would block any site having words like "Asian" in the URL, including Google's search results.

[financialexpress.com...]

More Search Issues: Big story in Korea: Korean netizens baffled after seeing Google search results for 'Kimchi origin' as 'China'

On February 5th, Korean netizens confirmed that a Google search result for 'Kimchi origin' shows up as China.

[allkpop.com...]

Canada - yes Canada - says news is not free and charts a course to make Google and Facebook Pay:

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault is promising legislation this year to ensure tech giants like Google and Facebook pay for the news content they disseminate on their platforms.

[globalnews.ca...]
[dailymail.co.uk...]

Google, Texas antitrust case over ad technology gets first day in Plano court

It’s “against the law for them to snoop in the email for litigation purposes, but it’s certainly not [illegal] to data mine. And, would they do that? Frankly, I’d be shocked if they don’t do that,” he told reporters. For proof, he urged reporters to use Google to search for “Tesla cars.”

[mlexmarketinsight.com...]

And finally, a Publicly owned Google? That's what one party in Australia is asking for:

The Greens are calling for the Coalition government to investigate the establishment of a publicly-owned and independent search engine for Australia, following Google threatening to withdraw from the country.

[itnews.com.au...]

[zeus]

I just say its loooong overdue that those mono poles Google, Facebook and Amazon get a lesson. They have ruined so many businesses and just have to much power.

[engine]

Those businesses have the resources to fight their corner, and are clever enough to find tactics to appease lawmakers. It's part of their system to deal with these "attacks" on their business, and put aside an allowance to fight and even to pay fines.

[zeus]

They sure have there allowance for such things and a big one :) Well lets see if we some how can get more competition so online businesses are not only dependent on 1-2 companies. Would be great with Bing duck ecosia yahoo and then 2-3 others to compete for search. Maybe that way more business would also move away from Amazon be cause they get more customers from those SEs, instead of paying them 15% of there income.

[superclown2]

Google has become practically useless for serious searching. Page one SERPs (in my verticals at least) are just full of those big companies that spend the most on ads despite the fact that their pages are thin to say the least; and they are just affiliates of other companies with fact filled websites that are lucky to appear on page 2. These big companies pay Google for ads (then appear highest in the SERPs as well), the actual providers of these products and services pay the big companies for the referrals, the ultimate customer picks up the bill for everything. How this can be a good thing is beyond me.

And don't get me started on pinterest, People also ask, the 'people also search for' popup that is driving me nuts (like whack a mole, the more you delete it the more it comes back!) and all the other junk the SERPs are full of.

[samwest]

Google and Big Tech censorship alone should put them on a trajectory of self collapse. The perfect time for alternatives to blossom...and long overdue.

[engine]

BTW, that was a great summary, Brett.
Minor story Report: Google $1.34 Mln Fine Over Hotel Rankings [webmasterworld.com]

[RedBar]

Well, well, well ... After years of wondering and SEOing, I now know why my company name website has not appeared for years after previously dominating its SERPs, apparently it is filtered-out! All other SEs are fine with it.

Ever since melding my two main sites together under a new trading name have I seen traffic at the levels I considered they deserved and increasing month-on-month.

If only tedster were still around to know of this, it completely confounded us both!

[goodoldweb]

It's temporary. Trust Google to find a reason to penalize your website on the next update or two. Google are now fully engaged in the "suppress traffic by any means, make site owner pay" mode. They don't even try to hide it anymore.

Whatever google are being handed by governments nowadays is well deserved and well overdue!

[iamlost]

Please don’t get excited, this is a tussle between enterprises.

There was a 5-year (2010-2015) wrestling match between commodity enterprise advertisers (eg Proctor & Gamble, Kraft) that broke open aka became public with Julie Fleischer of Kraft announcing the rejection of 85% of billed impressions. Google et al shifted from ad served to ad glimpsed billing, oh my.

How many non-enterprise AdWords advertisers were able to reject n% of billing’s? Or were refunded for years of unseen ad impressions?

This is just another vertical, news, where a war for revenue between enterprise and Google has also been under way for years. Yes, Google is/will come to an accommodation as politics and regulatory intervention looms. With enterprise news. This is not pay for content on any broader sense.

Google News Showcase (last October ~200 publishers in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, and UK had signed up) has agreed to pay $1-billion over 3-years... or less than $2-million average per year, relative peanuts. Other, prior, agreements cover publishers Belgium, India, the Netherlands...

Members of the European Publishers Council are critical, concerned Google is getting to say they are helping finance news production while dictating terms and conditions. Will they fall in line or force a better deal?
Popcorn time!

Publishers - and politicians - in Australia and France currently arm wrestling G... odds on outcome(s)? Yes, G left it a little late in both, definite miscalculation.

None of which affects the broader web or the content creators/providers therein. This Godzilla vs King Kong not David vs Goliath.