"Google Does Not Own The Internet"
However, they do own and maintain the most popular search engine, and sometimes they appear to think that they own all of cyber-space - indexing pages as if they are space explorers planting their national flags on alien planets.This is not a problem most of the time, but every so often they re-write their own rules and deem websites to be unworthy of their lofty standards. I have no doubt that this very blog will be once again plunged into the depths of zero Page Rank, but I keep going for the very reason I stated at the start of this article ie. Google do NOT own the internet, and if I want to go against their rules (their 'rules' are not any sort of law) I will go against them to my hearts content, even using their very own blogging platform to do so.
Don't get me wrong, I am not ranting against the mighty Google simply because they are big business like one may protest about MacDonalds simply because they are a successful business and therefore an easy target. My gripe with Google has always been that they sell advertising in their search results - fair enough, I have used both Google Adwords and Google Adsense to good effect. The problem is that whilst on the one hand they sell advertising, on the other they try to stamp out all other types of advertising and try to prevent people who use other (non-Google) types of advertising from appearing in their results. I believe this is a form of restrictive practice and I am sure that one day someone will be able to persuade a court that Google does not own the internet, and the consequences will be far-reaching.
Again, don't get me wrong, I admire what Google has done, they are a lesson to any business - they were in the right place at the right time and profited hugely, and any self-respecting free-market supporter has to see their achievements as being massively significant in the last few decades. Like any other concern they started small and their current scale of hugeness will probably work against them in the long run. I believe that Google is feeding on it's own hype and at some point, a smart Alec legal genius will have them bang to rights in a court of law. Litigation is common in the internet world and cases have already been answered without so far, any significant effect. I don't know what it will take to bring the giant down, but it is almost inevitable that it will happen. My task is to keep on blogging and keep on earning through whatever means are available and to see if I can be a minnow that outlasts the giant. I do not own the internet, and that's one thing that both I and Google have in common.
