Google is not a search engine, it’s an ad engine. You search to find stuff, they respond with a full page ad. This is so ludicrously user hostile that it’s only tenable when you operate a monopoly. Break. Them. Up.
Hey, let me pitch you on this new search engine. Users enter a term they’re looking for, and, get this, instead of showing them results, we will show them a full-page ad from whoever wants to buy that. Don’t you think users are going to love it??
This is what monopoly abuse looks like in the age of surveillance capitalism. Google are able to raise the cognitive price on users because they’ve cornered the market. If they were not the dominant entrance, they’d never be able to get away with this.
Google is a tax on the internet.
This is how Googlers rationalize the exercise of monopoly power. Search is just entertainment! We are just like network television. Don’t you love having network TV ethics in charge of a public service utility with a monopoly stranglehold on the internet??
Classic monopoly power: Corner the market as the front door of the internet by providing great results under a motto of “do no evil”. Once cornered, use the monopoly to shake down businesses for protection money. Cha-ching! 🤑
This is a great point. SEO is a waste of time if you’re just jockeying for position of page 4. Google is now a paid catalogue with a deprecated search engine attached for PR purposes.
And another misleading ad confusing customers searching for Discourse. Remember when Google was about helping you find the most accurate results for your search? Good times, those were.
