Greed is the
discorded love of Google. The phrase that may not sound good to many watchdogs
of the search engine but it’s actually true. There are many instances that
prove Google favors brands and the company aims at smaller business to
have its goose producing more golden eggs. First it was China that exposed
Google hypocrisy and now buySafe!
In digital world, the
Pareto Rule (80/20) does not hold true especially in search business. Google
knows 20/80 rule works in virtual world and it’s always about ‘Long Tail’.
Google
apparently favors big brand more on organic than on sponsored search that is
being perceived as a discouraging tactic for smaller businesses which is
definitely NOT from Google perspectives. The objective behind this sudden love
of Google for brands is not due to ‘trust’ but due to 'moolah'. O..La la..! Big
brands rely more on other marketing channels than on search engines. They care
less if their sites rank on Google or not. Then who cares? Of course small
businesses that can’t afford large multi-channel marketing investment and
therefore relies so much on search engines, especially on Google, for their
business.
The strategy is
clear now. The search engine does not want smaller businesses (large in number)
to rank on organic search results rather wants them on ‘sponsored slot’ to have
goose producing more golden eggs.
The watchdog of
search quality always hints at ‘Quality’ as an important ranking signal but to
me and many of us, quality is a subjective term that is subject to debate. Not
necessarily all that is liked by online users is quality and vice versa. What
is quality from Google’s perspectives? To me, quality refers to how many
products/services of Google that a business consumes. If a business spends a large
volume of money on AdWords, uses ‘Check Out’, become partner and affiliate,
uses Google Merchant service, etc, Google treats it as Quality! We often fall
in debate and discussion of doing X for Y and try to solve the mysterious puzzle
of the search engine’s algorithm.
A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web, published in the New York Times is one such
instance where Google faced the faux pas. Another such recent incident can be
found when a company named buySafe is filing a case against Google over their “Trusted Stores Program.” buySafe
is a company that addresses the concerns of online shoppers by providing third
party certification and transactional guarantee for internet retailers.
Google tried hard for
a joint venture with buySafe in 2006 and 2008. When failed on this front, Google
launched its Trusted Stores Program which is similar to buySafe’s program. The ONLY
advantage with Google is that it would ask e-retailers enrolling for the
program to get favor both in organic ranking
and in advertisement slot.
Matt Cutts always
says Google values a trusted site. With this program, Google will certify which
eCommerce site is trusted or which is not, right Matt? Is the same ‘trust’ you
are talking about? I’d not say much except quoting Karl Marx who said ‘capitalism
contains the seed of its own destruction. To me, its hypocrisy while for many
it may be stupidity! What do you think?
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