Internet Monopolies

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber

August 2, 2008

This blogger’s story about how his Page Rank 9 blog was hacked and removed from Google’s index shows the power of Google to essentially wipe out a guy’s work.

Yesterday was one of the scariest days I’ve had in a long time and it put in total perspective the power that Google wields. It also made me hope that every single company with an idea about how to improve search, including Microsoft, continues to try and beat Google. I was working on a blog post and was searching for something I’d written before so that I could reference it. Instead of using my blog’s search, I of course used Google’s site feature, like I always do. Only this time, I got nothing…

Now I think Google is to be commended as a company, for the great success it has had. I have nothing against success. But people are so polarized today– if Google decided to ignore you, then the world ignores you. It is a BAD thing for this to happen. Competition is supposed to be healthy, right? Well, currently there is no competition. Google reigns. And when Google makes a decision, there is no buffer, nothing to rely on.

The guy I mentioned had his blog hacked and spammed. Google will remove a spammy website. But the gi=uy’s blog was not a splog (a blog made for the purpose of spreading spam). He’d been hacked. And when he tried to fix it, he had to go through tremendous hoops and hurdles just to get Google to listen to him; and then he had to wait for weeks before corrective action was done.

It’s a sad monument to our times. I, like this blogger, hope to see more search engine companies rise to the top. It looks like Yahoo has dropped the ball. This was strange, because Yahoo could have given Google some great competition; but Yahoo backed away.

There’s now Cuil, but that is unsatisfactory and needs improvements.

We’ll see what develops. I am hoping for a new contender soon!