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It looks like Deutschland has a bee in its bonnet about Google. Apparently it is using the dreaded M word “monopol” which, according to Google’s own translation tool is the German form of the English word monopoly. The Germans are concerned that Google is looking like Microsoft and they are not happy. Somebody needs to get in their Mercedes and take a ride on the Autobahn to cool off, maybe? We learned of the Reuters report from Search Engine Land . Apparently the German justice minister is upset that Google isn’t transparent enough. I thought monopolies are about cornering markets and not transparency but maybe I am missing something in the translation. Here’s her thoughts from Reuters In an interview with weekly magazine Der Spiegel, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said she was concerned the firm was accruing too much power and information about citizens via programmes like Google Earth and Google Books. “All in all, what’s taking shape there to a large extent is a giant monopoly, similar to Microsoft,” the minister said. “My initial response is not to ban something or stop something. But I do want to create more transparency and ensure that users know what is going on with their data,” she added. “I think the companies have an obligation here, and a lot of things ought to be improved. If that doesn’t happen soon we may have to take action as legislators.” Once again I have to ask the question does Google actually monopolize anything? According to Dictionary.com monopoly is: a board game in which a player attempts to gain a monopoly of real estate by advancing around the board and purchasing property, acquiring capital by collecting rent from other players whose pieces land on that property. Oooops. Wrong one. Here’s the one that works for our purposes here: 1. exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices. 2. the market condition that exists when there is only one seller. I think this is where people are getting confused. Microsoft and the desktop smelled of monopoly because no one else could play. Google, on the other hand, is not the only player in nearly everything it has its tentacles in. It just does things bigger and, most times, better than the rest. That’s called cleaning the competition’s clock, not a monopoly. I am sure there will be plenty of arguments that Google is a monopoly and I welcome all of them here. Just be sure that when you are using Google and monopoly in the same sentence you are not just complaining that Google does more things and they do them better. They have to prevent competition from taking place to be a real monopoly and I don’t see that like others might. Did you hear Google cry that Lycos, AltaVista and Yahoo were “monopolies” when it was in its infancy and seen as the new kid on the block with the goofy name? Nope. They went out and did things the old fashioned way: they innovated and gave the public what they wanted and in the process laid waste to things that didn’t work as well as they did. If that’s a monopoly then I’m all for it.

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Germany Cries Monopoly and Doesn’t Even Collect $200

As expected it looks like this week may be a bit light in the news department. That’s fine. Everyone needs a break from time to time. So as I am looking around this morning I come across an op-ed piece in the New York Times that is written by Adam Raff, a co-founder of Foundem, an Internet technology company. From what I can gather, Mr. Raff is upset that his site was banned from Google’s index. There is no explanation as to why this happened so I am not going to assume anything although an article from eConsultancy looks at his plight and we get some insight as to why Google is so ‘mean’ to him. As a result, Mr. Raff contends that Google simply is too powerful and that the government should be considering a ‘search neutrality’ platform that falls in line with the ‘net neutrality’ platform. Here is a bit of his concern: Today, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s new Bing have become the Internet’s gatekeepers, and the crucial role they play in directing users to Web sites means they are now as essential a component of its infrastructure as the physical network itself. The F.C.C. needs to look beyond network neutrality and include “search neutrality”: the principle that search engines should have no editorial policies other than that their results be comprehensive, impartial and based solely on relevance. I had to shake my head that this was actually put in print but I kept reading. I bumped into more ‘complaints’. Another way that Google exploits its control is through preferential placement. With the introduction in 2007 of what it calls “universal search,” Google began promoting its own services at or near the top of its search results, bypassing the algorithms it uses to rank the services of others. Google now favors its own price-comparison results for product queries, its own map results for geographic queries, its own news results for topical queries, and its own YouTube results for video queries. And Google’s stated plans for universal search make it clear that this is only the beginning. I guess my question is “What is a company supposed to do in that situation”? Why should anyone in the free market be obligated to being relegated to a ‘public service’ status just because they do something better than most? I admit that it seems a bit creepy at times to see just how far reaching Google is with regard to services. I also believe that as they get bigger there are likely to be many vulnerabilities that will be discovered and exploited as the free market has seen in the past with seemingly invincible powers like IBM and Microsoft. It just happens. There’s a lot more to this op-whine piece that I am surprised the Times even allowed to see the light of day. Without search neutrality rules to constrain Google’s competitive advantage, we may be heading toward a bleakly uniform world of Google Everything — Google Travel, Google Finance, Google Insurance, Google Real Estate, Google Telecoms and, of course, Google Books. Some will argue that Google is itself so innovative that we needn’t worry. But the company isn’t as innovative as it is regularly given credit for. Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Groups, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Android and many other Google products are all based on technology that Google has acquired rather than invented. Ask Cisco if they ‘invented’ everything they own. The folks who make Flip cameras are thrilled that Cisco likes to buy good ideas. Interestingly enough, Mr. Raff actually shows that Google PROVIDES market opportunity for the little guy. There are small companies out there that make good things that Google could buy thus making the companies that were innovative enough to be recognized successful beyond what was likely to happen on their own. Maybe Mr. Raff needs to think about making something worthy of being purchased by Google rather than worming his way into the media to complain about his issues. I do have a solution for Mr. Raff. If there is this need for an impartial search engine (which is a ridiculous concept because in order for anything to be ‘ranked’ in numerical order there needs to be some guidelines thus implied ‘partiality’) that is based solely on merit (Whose definition of merit? Someone has to be judge and jury here, right?) and relevance (as defined by whom?) why not let the government build its own search engine? Why put this constraint on the private sector? Our current situation here in the US is that the government wants to be knee deep in everything so why not let them create the engine ‘for the people and by the people’ then let the people decide? Are there any Googlers out there who would like to address this kind of thinking? As for Marketing Pilgrim readers how do you really feel about Google’s place in the market? Is there any validity to this argument? Is Google’s dominance something to be concerned about or just accepted? Is there a real threat of this becoming a Google world? What if that did happen? Is there any validity to the concept of ’search neutrality’? Weigh in please. I have a better idea. Would someone please make some news so we can move on to other things?

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Search Neutrality?

Earlier this month, Google revealed it was filing suit against Pacific WebWorks (and other yet-to-be-named parties) for infringing on its trademark. Pacific WebWorks was among the companies running a “Google Work from Home” scam, advertising a way to make money off Google, to be learned through an inexpensive kit (and hidden, exorbitant recurring fee—which always enhances my learning experience). Pacific WebWorks was also using Google’s logo and representing its kit and other services as endorsed by the search giant. Pacific WebWorks issued a statement yesterday saying that they had reached an “agreement in principle” to settle and would be complying with Google’s request for expedited discovery. So either they think they’re innocent or they’re ready to sweep this all under the rug as fast as possible. So, if they’re agreed and moving toward a settlement, why do we need discovery? Discovery is the phase of the trial where each of the parties share pertinent documents—so perhaps Google is demanding this to find the other companies it believes are running the scams. Google said earlier this month that, “upon information and belief,” the other scammers were materially connected with Pacific WebWorks. Does this mean that the Google work from home scams will stop? Maybe in this iteration—but the whole thing is just a play on an old theme. Read any classifieds section and you’ll see more of the same. Hopefully scammers will think twice about using Google’s name and pretending to have its endorsement, but this scam will probably never go away completely. What do you think? Will the case really be over that quickly? via

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Google Work at Home Scammer Settling Suit

At the rate Yahoo is dumping its own technology and partnering with others, the only thing left that will be “Yahoo built” will be these bloody big pens: A little over a year since Yahoo announced the expansion of Yahoo Profiles, the search engine, portal, social network , we-don’t-know-what-we-are company is apparently ready to ditch its own social network aspirations and jump into bed with Facebook : It will enable them to connect with Facebook friends on Yahoo!, view a feed of their friends’ related activity on Yahoo!, and share content—such as photos from Flickr or comments on news stories—with all of their friends on Facebook. The content that consumers share with Facebook friends will then create a loop that drives visitors back to Yahoo!. OK, so you can’t blame Yahoo for making this move. After all, social networking is Facebook’s strength, and not Yahoo’s. But, I’m starting to worry what Yahoo has left to call it’s “strength.” When your business is supported by the strength of other companies, it becomes very easy for your foundation to be undermined by them.

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Yahoo Partners with Facebook, Plans to Focus on Selling Big Pens?

Everyone wants to earn money even more so during the hard economic times people are experiencing not only with the United States but world wide.  Many people who are in the field of marketing have discovered the numerous benefits as well as easy way to market through affiliate marketing.  What is affiliate marketing? This type of marketing primarily involves setting up website links for other businesses on your website.  If someone utilizes those particular, website links upon your website or purchases services or products from those particular companies, those companies will in return give you a fee or commission. You do not have to be an expert You don’t have to be a marketing expert to perform affiliate marketing.  Virtually anyone can perform this type of marketing.  One wonderful benefit of this type of marketing is that you do not have to handle any inventory, tech support or shipping.  Affiliate marketing can be easy money The company which you are hosting on your website takes care of all the aforementioned tasks.  All you have to do is provide customers the information and the rest is off your shoulders. Utilize automated tools available on the market You can handle this type of marketing campaign automatically.  Once your website is set up for online marketing the only thing, left to do is strategically lure visitors to your website.  The sky’s the limit The potential is abundant with affiliate marketing.  There are also many advantages to this style of marketing.  The workforce is huge in dealing indirectly in promoting other companies products and services.  Companies earn revenue while giving some of that revenue to affiliate marketers. Select products and services which interest you The interest in affiliate marketing is great, so great that many options are available for this type of marketing.  When partaking in this type of marketing, you are better off selecting companies which truly interest you.  This ensures that you believe in their products and services and are not merely performing affiliate marketing with companies strictly to “make a buck”.  You will find that your marketing efforts will prove more efficient when you promote products and services which interest you. Opt for companies to aid you with creation of your website Your first step is creating your own website.  There are companies who will be willing to aid you with creating and hosting your website.  You must be aware that free web hosting services are available online but you get what you pay for.  Sometimes it’s best to shell out a few dollars to get a desired result as compared to free tools which only frustrate you and waste your time.  You must focus on driving traffic to your website.  The first step in performing this task is ensuring the content which you provide on your website is relevant and useful information for customers to read.  This will enable your website to fit in relevant content which will in return become relevant to your affiliate marketing links.

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Affiliate Marketing Is the Latest Craze with Internet Marketing