Living and Dying by Google

by jill ~ September 16, 2008

I have a few friends who work in the online advertising business - and I’ve heard a lot about the Google Mafia, and how they have changed the rules drastically over the last year - changes that affect business strategies built on the Google system itself.

The specific troubles are outlined in this New York Times article about one man’s struggle with an ever-changing Google landscape. What works and is acceptable one day, is not the next.  The reasons for why seem logical - they change algorithms, they set new standards - but what happens when you’re suddenly in the Google doghouse?

The same goes for big companies too who use Google AdSense and AdWords as their primary (and very lucrative) online advertising methods. 

My friend Robert works at an online content site and says, “It’s a scary environment right now. Every online advertising company seems to be a de facto Google subsidiary, nibbling at the fringes. There seems to be no end in sight to Google’s monopolistic takeover of the online advertising industry. Unfortunately, Google is so powerful and controls so much technology, data, and wealth, that no one in the private or public sector is likely to raise the obvious red flags for fear of retribution.”

Is it antitrust?  At this point, there simply is not an equally competitive system than Google, but there are other options out there - they just don’t work as well.  That doesn’t make it an antitrust case, but it is certainly affecting businesses large and small as they seem to hold so much of the control in their hands.