Most news sites are reporting on the Google anti-trust allegations today after the European Commission launched an anti-trust investigation against Google after three online companies alleged that the internet giant’s search functions were penalising their businesses.
This case has a lot of background (you can read about Foundem here and here – they recently got a 10,000% search traffic increase overnight after Google apparently lifted some kind of penalty) but the interesting thing for me is that at least one of the sites wanting to take action against Google is one of the webs largest link buyers. I have a number of emails from them blatantly trying to buy links and their link profile to deep pages is probably made up of 90% paid links.
My suggestion is that if you are violating Googles guidelines in any respect you should probably keep quiet.
You can read Googles point of view here.
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Leeds based digital & SEO agency Branded3. Patrick also runs Blogstorm.You can get our blog posts delivered for free by email every day - simply add your email address to the box below or alternatively grab the RSS feed.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I always say what comes around goes around, play with fire and expect to get burnt!!!
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In yesteryear, the adage ‘knowledge is power’ was well understood. In the world of the giant corporate, ‘money is power’ – take a look at Microsoft for example – whatever they seem to do, the courts take years to moderate their activities, by which time it is simply too late and they have made their money and run. With regards to google, the great masters of myth and mirrors, let’s see what happens – don’t be expecting miracles within short time frames, because large corporates have a habit of getting their own way in the long term. Whatever you think of google, they were originally the underdogs and like with all other companies, success breeds contempt and public scorn. My opinion only. Interested to see other comments though!
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