Observations on search and politics

[glakes]

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System: The following 4 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/5008345.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 3:36 pm on Sep 12, 2020 (PDT -8)

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So I got my one great conversion day for the month of September, guess I will have to wait till next month again.

I experience similar trends with Google. I feel it's a rotation pattern where Google drives conversions to competing sites. Since Google has very little buyer traffic these days, the rotation pattern I believe is designed to keep businesses interested in Google. Meanwhile my Amazon sales tend to be more consistent, though have trended down as of recent.

The big news in ecommerce is an Ex-NSA Chief recently joined the Amazon Board of Directors ( [webmasterworld.com...] ). This follows the trend of making these big multi-national corporations, such as Amazon and Google, quasi-Government agencies that are exempt from Constitutional Government restrictions on collecting and storing data on private citizens.

[mosxu]

@glakes

“Ex-NSA Chief recently joined the Amazon Board of Directors”

No wonder no politician is looking at unlawful behaviour and try to bring in regulation and fairness

[glakes]

No wonder no politician is looking at unlawful behaviour and try to bring in regulation and fairness

Exactly. I believe both Amazon and Google have been allowed to break a variety of laws, and their monopolies not only allowed but encouraged by Government to grow/expand, in the name of "national security." The problem is this is counterproductive, IMO. For example, Amazon controls about half the ecommerce industry in the USA. 58% of the top 100,000 sellers on Amazon, with sales of $1+ million per year, live in China. Only 36% of the top sellers on Amazon live in the USA, with many of them selling products they purchase from Chinese companies. Then we have Google crowding their SERPS with Amazon pages, including those so loosely relevant they should not be seen. As a result of this lopsided "China First" national strategy, China benefits from our trade deficit with them that runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars each year. I fail to see how enriching a Communist adversary benefits our national security. But with 70% of GDP fueled by consumer spending, both Amazon and Google are doing just that. And for the most part, the consumer is oblivious and has been trained to accept this as the way it is and will forever be.

[tangor]

I best keep my mouth shut if this thread trends. :)

My opinions are not generally held by the majority! (sigh)

[glakes]

I best keep my mouth shut if this thread trends.

The thread was buried so that it won't be seen. I can't argue with that decision by mods, since many will never accept that a corrupt search engine may produce corrupt search results to achieve whatever nefarious goals they have. Some will focus on technical SEO, while taking a sip of their Kool-Aid, and overlook or flat out deny the corrupt foundation that most algorithm/AI instructions are built upon along with the economic destruction it produces. All I can say is ignorance is bliss...

In keeping with the spirit of this thread, let's look at the partnership Google has with PayPal. As part of Google's Shopping Actions program, one must provide a business PayPal account to Google to continue selling in this program. PayPal is the most expensive method of accepting payments that I've seen, so this partnership between Google and PayPal leverages the dominance of Google to squeeze ecommerce stores even harder. But even more troubling is what kind of data will PayPal disclose to Google as part of this partnership? Will individual's purchase history end up in Google's database? Google was an investor in Credit Karma, and I suspect sharing was also part of this deal.