So, it’s Google Zeitgeist time in the UK; where the world’s press gather to kiss the ass of the three billionaire’s behind the search giant.
These are the same three guys who own a freaking jumbo jet and talk for hours about saving the planet!
One of the statements made during this ‘Google love-in’, was that the guys behind Google don’t think they are too powerful in advertising. It’s hardly a surprise – who expected them to admit that they did?
Google ‘own’ online advertising!
I run a successful marketing company and I can confirm that many small businesses think ‘Google advertising’ is just another way of saying ‘online advertising’. They make more money from advertising than anyone else and have more advertisers too. GOOGLE OWN ONLINE ADS!
If you don’t believe me – GOOGLE IT! :)
Credit where it is due
Google’s search is the best and it has been for years. They currently offer the most powerful and accurate search product available and this, on merit, is why they have become a near monopoly for search and search advertising. They deserve to have been massively successful – but a monopoly is seldom, if ever, a good idea for consumers.
Why should this bother YOU?
Simple; with the largest and smallest businesses on the planet now advertising on Google, it is becoming increasingly important and increasingly expensive! The cost of pay-per-click, (for example), on Google has gone through the roof in the past couple of years. Businesses are now paying two, three and sometimes five times as much for the exact same results – because there are so many more people now bidding for those same advertising slots.
This artificially pushes up prices, as companies try to recoup some of the their advertising increases by charging more for their products!
This problem will only get worse, as Google’s global dominance increases. Google have a near monopoly, which will become a true monopoly unless something changes! I am NOT a Microsoft fan, but I hope that they and Yahoo can combine to make the online search advertising marketplace a bit more competitive.
Google search is excellent and they offer some fantastic products; but please, stop this total bullshit that Google are not too powerful in advertising!
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U bet !! very well said…
Google does own the online advertising business, but that being said, there are may other such organizations that do online advertising too.. and they are extremely good. But google monopolizing the market has made it hard for these startups to survive…. and whats worse still, is that we ourselves fall prey to google’s adsense program which makes us all part of the game. It’s we ourselves who make google what they are…
google is known for enticing publishers with pretty lucrative payouts… but have u tried boosting it ? AH!!! once you do so, you will see the huge difference in the payouts… and will realize that the one’s making money in this advertising game is google and not the “publishers” !!
Hi Rohan,
You make a really good point; that we are all part of the problem. As I said in the post, I also use Google search – because I really like it. It is certainly going to be hard for a new start-up to gain significant market share from Google; which is why I hope the MS / Yahoo hook-up comes off.
Thanks Rohan!
I think there is some bad content in this article. Firstly the whole angle of Google being a monopoly is plain false. A monopoly is the persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service. As one of the other comments suggest there are other providers of online advertising.
The point around Google increasing prices is also, for me, not well researched. True prices are rising but (as the article itself points out!!!) Google are very good at what they do and are constantly improving. Their last results proved they are right to up their prices as theyre selling less ads as the ads they do sell have such high conversion rates. It may be cheaper to buy 100 ads for £100 with X company but if you only need 50 ads for the same price with a 50% higher conversion rate then why not pay “more” (these numbers are of course made up but it’s the principle not the numbers to heed).
I agree with the point that competition to Google is a good thing. I’m very much for open markets and competition. For me though this is the current situation.
There isn’t anything to fix or worry about. Until somebody provides a better solution Google will remain dominant and not a monopoly.
you get what you pay for and google are delivering. If you don’t like it use one of their competitors but don’t then moan if the service isn’t as good.
Dan – WTF?
do you work for google or are you just drunk. either way, why go into a blog and rip on an article when you never even read what the guy wrote?
i just read the article again and hes right, he said google had a near monopoly and they do – didnt you know that?
He never said they had a monopoly – so why use your cut-n-pate wikipedia BS ‘heres what a monopoly is’ crap? Sheeeeeeeesh.
I run a small insurance firm and our pay per click advertising spend on Google has gone up from £800 in 2006 to £1,700 today. That’s for the same number of enquiries so i have no idea where that chap got his numbers from.
I hope Google will price themselves out of the market or someone comes along and offers some proper competition. I am really unclear why that chap thinks its a good thing to have an almost closed market for internet advertising?
I HAVE to ask this…
Being as you just agreed with every point I made; that Google ARE increasing their prices and that competition IS good – why start your comment saying the content of my post was ‘bad’?
I also never said Google had a monopoly (read again) – I said they enjoy a “near-monopoly!” The fact there are other search engines clearly suggests that they do not own 100% of search, again, I never said they did so not sure where you read that – wasnt on my blog.
A few days later Mike Arrington from techcrunch made the exact same point as me, regarding Google’s near monopoly and why someone needs to innovate and develop a better product.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/25/the-importance-of-a-competitive-search-market/
I have clients and readers today paying up to 3 times as much for the SAME level of business from Google as they WERE getting 2 years ago. That drives price up and hurts small businesses.
Because Google are so dominant, you now have too many companies bidding for that same frontpage spot. This drives Googles revenues up and increases prices for consumers; as the advertisers have to spend more and more to reach the same (or fewer) number of people.
This near monopoly is hurting everyone – except Google.
This situation, with no genuine competition might suit you – I think it sucks!
Sarah Jane,
It’s not uncommon for someone to read a blog post and only see what they want to.
Rob,
Dan did actually say he was all for competition – though I admit it was a little confusing as he also said things didn’t need to change.
I’m guessing someone has blogged about this article recently, as it’s had hundreds of page views over the past hour or so – even though it’s not even on my front page anymore.
Thanks to all of you for your comments!