Traffic is down on most of our client's sites and nothing has changed on our end except major improvements to our sites in terms of more useful content and improving technology (bootstrap, amp etc).
Some quotes from above: "How would the government stop Google from becoming a monopoly?" ..... "because their understanding of technology is so limited"
Not only is Google a search monopoly, they are a monopoly in search advertising. But their biggest violation of all affecting every website on the Internet is their prohibiting websites to link to each other which is Restraint of Trade, a common law doctrine. The proof is right here: [
support.google.com...]
"Link to me and I'll link to you" (obviously when relevant) should NOT be prohibited. The average small biz mom/pop website has no clue about nofollow and disavow. Tim Berners Lee invented the web to link to each other, not for one search engine to drive traffic on a one way street. This is a blatant violation of US Restraint of Trade Laws.
Here is the further proof from the media that exists to date courtesy of 60 Minutes....
From [
cbsnews.com...]
" Gary Reback is one of the most prominent antitrust lawyers in the country widely credited with persuading the Justice Department to sue Microsoft back in the 90s, the last major antitrust case against big tech. Now he is battling Google.
Steve Kroft: You think Google's a monopoly?
Gary Reback: Oh, yes, of course Google's a monopoly. In fact they're a monopoly in several markets. They're a monopoly in search. They're a monopoly in search advertising.
Right now the only one taking aggressive action against Google and the power of big tech is Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner for the European Union. During her four years in office, Vestager has become a thorn in the side of Silicon Valley, fining Facebook $122 million for a merger violation and ordering Ireland to recover $15 billion in taxes owed by Apple. Last summer she levied a record $2.7 billion fine against Google for depriving certain competitors of a chance to compete with them.
Margrethe Vestager: Just as well as I admire some of the innovation by Google over the last decade-- well, I want their illegal behavior to stop.
Steve Kroft: And that's what you feel has gone on.
Margrethe Vestager: Not only do we feel it, we mean that we can prove it.
In researching the case, Vestager says her staff went through 1.7 billion Google search queries and found that Google was manipulating its secret search formulas—or algorithms—to promote its own products and services and sending its competitors into oblivion.
Margrethe Vestager: It's very difficult to find the rivals. Because on average, you'd find them only on page four in your search results.
Steve Kroft: And why so far down?
Margrethe Vestager: Well, because then you don't find them. I don't-- I don't know anyone who goes to page four in their search result. The-- jokingly, you could say that this is where you should keep your secrets. Because no one ever comes there.
Steve Kroft: Do you think this has been deliberate on Google's part?
Margrethe Vestager: Yes. We think that this is done on purpose.
Steve Kroft: How do they do it? I think everybody has this idea that Google has this algorithm. And they put the best searches right at the top.
Margrethe Vestager: Well, it is exactly the algorithm that does it. Both the-- the promotion of Google themselves and the demotion of others.
Steve Kroft: So, they're rigging the game.
Margrethe Vestager: Yes. And it is illegal. "
It is time for the US FTC and DOJ to put the reigns on Google's illegal practices. Rigging the game affects SERPS and with no competition, this evidence I present above is relevant to this thread.
[edited by: cnvi at 6:38 pm (utc) on Mar 4, 2019]
Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2019
