Google Took Our Jobs!
So because Google is doing a great job, they are being investigated by the FTC due to their competitiveness practices. Competitors like Microsoft (Bing) and Yahoo have been trying to win the search engine game for years but Google is kicking their behinds, claiming over 65% of the market. Google is being accused of returning certain results such as shopping sites that they own or are affiliated with. Google’s reply to that: Competition is only a click away.
Other search engines aren’t the only ones whining. Companies like Yelp and TripAdvisor are as well saying that Google is putting services like their Places higher in the search results.
Do I wish Google didn’t have such a big piece of the pie? Well, yes. I’d rather not have such a large chunk of my business dependent on Google but then again, people use Google for a reason; it’s better than the alternatives and I guess partly out of habit. Remember that Yahoo used to be #1 before Google got into the search engine business. They obviously did things better in the consumers’ eyes to dominate Yahoo.
In any case, no one holds a gun to people’s heads and demands them to use Google. Anyone can just easily go to Yahoo or Bing or one of the other hundreds of search engines out there. Even if Google does favor their own affiliated sites, so what? It’s their house, they make the rules. Try going into Costco and demand that they don’t display their Kirkland brand as prominently. You’ll probably get escorted out by security. They can do what they want. If you don’t like it, don’t use their service.
Just because Google is wiping the floor with their competitors’ faces, it doesn’t mean their competitors should go crying to the FTC. When your competitors get better, you need to get better instead of trying to tear them down. How about working harder and smarter to actually dominate the market by offering users more value instead of complaining like a bunch of sore losing kids? Obviously, this all comes down to money. The better Google does, the less money their competition makes. Boohoo, they took our jobs.
You can read more about this antitrust issue from this Huffington Post article. This is one of the few articles I found on the topic that is written by someone with common sense.
Quote from the article:
“…an antitrust investigation of Google, prompted by complaints that have more to do with the needs of competitors than with the best interests of consumers, is out of touch with the commission’s purpose of protecting consumers.”
Well said Mr. Balto.
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