Is Google Search's business practices unfair to business?

[Whitey]

In the last few days in Australia, Uber has settled for $272m with taxi companies damaged by unfair business practice. [amp.theguardian.com...]

It was a class action, in just one country.

Many attempts by regulators previously failed. But this one hit home.

Could the practices of Google search that damage business’ that are dependent on it, without fair transparency and process, be subject to a class action for compensation and modifying fair practices to protect business’ aside from the current DOJ probes?

[smh.com.au...]

[Juniya]

At the rate Google is going. I think they are next in line, but it might come AFTER the DOJ probes as even the government doesn't want to destroy Google, they eat a lot of their money via taxes and data sharing.

But the last couple of years they have really lost their plot, we are heading towards class action lawsuits. It might be why they have hired a new person to lead Search/Indexing. Things are not going well at Google.

[adman]

In my small opinion, search should be divided to big sites, medium sites and small sites, because there are millions of sites and only 10 top spots.

In the real physical world, businesses rarely go down 80-90% overnight, except in the rare extreme situations.
In the virtual world, you can go down 100% in a few hours.
The only solution, from my perspective, would be to diversify search rankings, to protect small from big sites.

[ghostofseo]

Nothing in life is fair. However for Google to have made it hard to find many a good websites will only harm Google in the long term.

Here is what's most likely happening at Google

Advertising dollars are up at the moment. (flood of new ads in search)
Impressions for ads have sky rocketed (flood of new ads in search)
Time on Site has increased massively for Google (takes a while to find what your actually looking for now)

Bunch of SEO's complaining - Google doesn't care because SEO is bad now. Remember we have been told don't write for search engines, and now just to sit back and don't make any changes to our sites as they vanish. As advertising and affiliate sales are whipped out. Personally I would rather go down swinging doing everything in my power to change Google's mind about my website vs doing nothing and hoping they get search fixed. Seems there is no real recovery for sites once we get lumped into these updates.

Or maybe it's categories now. When did Google decide what a sites content is about, and about reputation spam where a site that say talks about dogs instead allowed to also talk about birds or what about toasters? Seems the logic of "Staying in your lane" doesn't apply to any news sites, major publications etc etc. They can freely and openly write about whatever they choose. And if that happens to be with a slant on making money.

[superclown2]

Could the practices of Google search that damage business’ that are dependent on it, without fair transparency and process, be subject to a class action

It seems there's one here in the UK.
[theguardian.com ]

[Whitey]

In my thinking Uber blindsided established taxi business’ with unfair practices. The consumer benefited though.

With Google, established business’, large and small are blindsided with algorithmic changes and unfair positioning selection at a whim. How is it fair to damage those business’ without clear and precise advice or fair process to allow them to adjust.

Are they entitled to reparations as a consequence to these algo adjustment and preferential attacks?

Someone, somewhere is going to establish a solid argument to support this in the name of business.

[Whitey]

Newsflash: Here we go (again)

EU opens investigations into Apple, Meta and Google

5 - Whether Google preferences the firm's own goods and services in search results
[bbc.com...]

[Juniya]

@Whitey - Good! It's unfortunate that the investigations will probably take 1 year+ But this is a good start.

[RedBar]

the investigations will probably take 1 year+

1+ ? Less of the 1 and a lot more of the +++ ... Let the EU check its own bank receipts first and remember all these people are in it together ... Haven't you noticed how quiet it's gone regarding the VDL scamdemic texts?

[EditorialGuy]

Apples and oranges. There's no legitimate comparison between (a) a rideshare company and its taxi-company rivals and (b) a company that indexes the Web and returns search results.

[Whitey]

Apples and oranges. There's no legitimate comparison between (a) a rideshare company and its taxi-company rivals and (b) a company that indexes the Web and returns search results.

Anti competitive practices that damage business’ maybe?

The nuances of law and the case behind both scenarios would have some common elements to trigger the challenge in terms of fair trade, I would have thought. It took many attempts for Uber to settle though.

I guess there’s an army of lawyers out there lining up, to have their day ( and bank cheques paid).

[AndyBeohar]

While the settlement between Uber and taxi companies in Australia sets a precedent, the feasibility of a class action against Google's search practices would depend on various factors, including evidence of unfair business practices and legal jurisdiction. However, ongoing DOJ probes and increased scrutiny of big tech companies suggest potential avenues for addressing concerns about transparency and fair practices in search engine operations.

[Whitey]

I did some more digging, on the back of the approach taken by the 2500 Swiss woman that brought a ground breaking determination against the Swiss Government [reuters.com...]

Like Uber, but on a much larger scale this was something new.

I wonder if there is an angle for suing a Government for not protecting it's citizens with new legislation or within existing legislation from unfair practices involving Google's selective choice of content that it provides that harm business and individuals in a sovereign jurisdiction within the The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) scope, without giving folks clear guidelines on how to manage and protect themselves in the distribution of their information.

The principle of freedom of expression, as held in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), applies broadly to the internet and the dissemination of information and ideas online. Try looking it up. You'll find some interesting things.

Some principles on:

1/ Transparency: Providing greater transparency into how search algorithms work, including how they prioritize and rank content, can help users better understand why certain information is surfaced over others and in my opinion they currently fail this.

2/ Accountability: Holding search engine companies accountable for the impact of their algorithms on freedom of expression and access to information. This may involve mechanisms for users to appeal decisions or report concerns about search results. At the moment Google and supervising authorities seem to fail in this regard

3/ Regulation: Implementing regulations or guidelines that ensure search engines operate in a manner consistent with human rights principles, including freedom of expression. This could involve collaboration between governments, regulatory bodies, and internet companies to establish clear standards and best practices. I don't see this currently happening.

4/ User Empowerment: Empowering users with tools and resources to customize their search experience, filter results, and access a diverse range of sources. This can help mitigate the risk of individuals being "blindsided" by algorithmic biases such as the one we are currently seeing with HCU and core updates.

Complaints can be lodged with the ECHR [echr.coe.int...] and i can see some complaints on less complex matters have gotten through and heard. I'm not sure how taking on Google would go far, but all journey's start with an idea. Some day it will happen, I'm sure. However. it's darn complex IMO

[Sandy_Desh]

Google's business practices have faced scrutiny for potential unfairness toward businesses due to its dominance in the search market and allegations of favoritism toward its own products and services in search results.

[Whitey]

Google faces second day of closing arguments in US antitrust trial

Google is expected to tell the court that its “search advertising technologies have proven to be incredibly valuable to advertisers” and that “search and search advertising quality and output have continually improved.”

[reuters.com...]

Oh yeah? They should reference what the community here thinks and the definition of enshi*ttification.

PS it’s about time the profanity filter exempt this word as it’s in the dictionary now ;)

[Whitey]

Closing arguments in anti trust trial;

[justice.gov...]

NB: No competition, code yellow to increase prices and ad revenue.

And just how did this impact the SERPs and the convenience of expunging 45% of “unhelpful content” at the expense of publishers?

[Whitey]

Lot's of opinion pieces out there right now, that I hope are feeding the regulators and politicians for fairer legislation to control this unfettered ubiquitous behemoth.

Here's one i picked up on today that stood out for me on being bad news for the web economy:

[bloomberg.com...]

[Whitey]

I guess you’ve heard, but just in case you haven’t:

A federal judge said on Friday that he planned to deliver a punishment for Google's internet search monopoly by August 2025, kicking off a new phase in an antitrust case that could reshape the tech giant and change competition on the internet.

[nytimes.com...]

[mhansen]

For me, the simple litmus test on their level of shadiness is whether someone can find my business by searching for "my exact business name". If the business comes up this way, IMO they are not hurting or using unfair practices that make it too hard for people to find a business. (Even if it's just a web-based business) Can you find your business website by typing it's name directly in to the search bar?

Now it gets a bit muddier when the ads on top that are related to "what my business does" and that could be seen as unfair, similar to the way you can only guarantee your business be on the very top by spending money on ads with Google. In my case, "my business" comes up on top with a Branded ad for the single word name, and also shows as the first organic result.

Now, just to make things a bit harder, my business name is a Portmanteau, meaning, it is two common words that are put together to make up a single word. Like "Groupon", which means "Group + Coupon". I have the domains for both the single word TM'd Portmanteau and the two-words that represent its meaning. The two-word meaning is a VERY high converting, high CPC, commercial intent transactional phrase. Even with the registered trademark (linked from website), a Wikipedia entry, many many backlinks that refer to the Portmanteau, describe its meaning, etc - Google still changes the search results on some of the branded queries to: "Showing Results for: "query + 2-word meaning" even when the user types in "query + portmanteau".

[Whitey]

Hot on the heels comes another trial brought on by the DOJ:

[bbc.com...]

[EditorialGuy]

Re Google's ad tech business: As I've said previously, be careful what you wish for. In 2023 alone, the "Google Network" (third-party sites that display ads provided by Google) brought in $8 billion in ad revenue. If Google were to have its ad tech business ripped away, it would no longer have an incentive to send traffic to third-party sites like ours.

[Fluff_Nutz]

@EG
I guess this would also, likely, include Youtube too?. If so, ouch! I no longer use the platform, though I still do generate some income from it. But that is opening a new can of worms. Businesses and livelihoods, that don't have sites, will then get a taste of what we have been through.
As for websites, well, lets be honest they don't send much traffic now anyway. Being 4th or 5th in my source list now. Instead of, what used to be, a consistent top spot. Maybe this latest change is not only because of AI but them testing if they can survive or not without their Ads? Like getting prepared for that possibility by getting rid of so many organic links.