Comments on: Why Google’s homepage antics are more serious than they appear

By: John Bloomfield

John Bloomfield — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:34:32 +0000

Google is a commercial company if you don’t like what it is doing strat using a rival – bing springs to mind they offer much of the same they may be a few years behind but a surefire way to help them catch up is to start using them!

By: Catherine Lockey

Catherine Lockey — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:28:29 +0000

I struggle with the fact that Google no longer provides complete search analytics my clients who do not use adwords. No longer can I view the search terms of those who log into Google and do a search for one of my customers – unless my customer has an active adwords account. I find this lack of transparency distressing and I think it sends a message to all of us – Google is no longer our friend. Google is looking out for Google. It really is all about the money.

By: Amit Misra

Amit Misra — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 13:26:19 +0000

I dont see there is anything wrong even if Google is doing it intentionally. We all are using Google Search for decades and without even spending any penny we consume information and use for our business to generate money for ourselves….So, if Google is trying to do so, no one should take this otherwise…..

By: Dany Yacoub

Dany Yacoub — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:16:41 +0000

google placing ads on its homepage has nothing to do with monopoly, it’s their page and they have the right to use it as they wish.
This is totally different than search results where the monopoly actually is (some sites has the search engine as their only gateway).
But accusing google of putting ads on its homepage because its the most visited page is absurd.

By: A S

A S — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:40:24 +0000

LOL! Why don’t you do so for a week, TWR, and tell us how life works out for you?

By: A S

A S — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:38:47 +0000

@rememberingbob – Can you tell us why, from the regulator’s point of view, an ad on the Google homepage doesn’t look all that different from mixing their preferred links in the search result? Anyone who can think a little can see those are entirely two different things.

Here’s something interesting: Forget about the home page. Google could display their own clearly marked ads in the ads section of the search results page (NOT as part of the search results themselves, mind you) and they would still be perfectly okay to do that.

Worse comes to worst, Google could argue that the Nexus 7 is primarily a search device or another channel for Google Search, and oh, it just happens to have other tablet functionality, and so it is perfectly okay to advertise it on the search page.

PS: For the record, I don’t like this behavior by Google either.

By: googfan

googfan — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:18:11 +0000

Despite earlier comments, market share alone does not mean a company is a monopoly nor violating antitrust laws.

http://www.fairfightfilm.org/aboutantitrust.html

By: Dennis D. McDonald

Dennis D. McDonald — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:52:53 +0000

My concern has absolutely nothing to do with Apple: http://www.ddmcd.com/trust.html

By: vabrothers1

vabrothers1 — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:34:04 +0000

I can’t really see anyone objecting about a single non intrusive ad on a company web page other than maybe the folks at Apple. No doubt in my mind Apple has already petitioned any and all regulators and courts.

By: pop585

pop585 — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:37:29 +0000

I think the relavant point is that advertizing on the search page, or skewing search results favoring google product lines makes me want to find another search engine. I left yahoo because I found the ads on the homepage distracting me from accomplishing my goal of searching for what I came for. Perfect example is that I got online this morning to look for freinds wedding registry and now I’m thinking about whether google is skewing search results. I hope they stick to the elegance of their search homepage. Its a good buisness model. Expand the brand elsewhere – they have plenty of channels to do it.