Is Google a responsible company?

March 18th, 2008 by Click Consult

These days everything changes and changes very quickly, including resources and knowledge distribution, political and economical environments, and people's perceptions about how organisation should behave.

Google is a young company that was born into new age within a new age industry. From this it could be assumed that it has accommodated all the characteristics of a modern organisation, such as vibrancy, fairness, ethics and responsibility.

So is Google failing some where?
It must be said that Google is the company to work for – creative environment, modern and hi tech facilities. This is why the company attracts so many top level professionals.
Its growth in the last few years was disproportionate comparing with Yahoo & MSN with share price rocketing up to $750 and global search market share of 64%.
But is it everything so bright and blissful?
There are many complaints about Google’s unfair practises which number increase each day in a row.

Quality score
Google’s quality score, which is supposed to be an indicator of relevancy, and in reality plays a completely opposite role, by triggering absolutely irrelevant high quality ads instead of lower quality score relevant ones.

This situation creates a discontent and confusion among PPC account managers, who following Google guidance, are categorizing out adgroups in order to achieve a more relevant ad display.

Matching options
Broad matching option is another lie that Google tells us. Google’s broad match should be based on synonyms and plurals,different order or additional words, but in reality you may find your ads appearing for very suspicious searches with no connection to both keyword and product.

Transparency
Corporate transparency is viewed as a sign of fairness and legitimacy, and Google isn’t one of these companies. Search query report is a prime example. Account managers had been anticipating this report for a long time as it was supposed to help them in campaign optimisation, providing negatives and additional keywords. In reality, 50% of the report shows that the ad was displayed for other unique queries.

Another point that should be mentioned is a huge database that Google has accumulated about its users. You can find everything about everybody, but when you want to know in depths about Google from the first source, the information simply isn’t there.
Is Google hiding something?

Small businesses
To start with, small businesses have been Google’s stronghold in online advertising, as it was a quick and easy way to get noticed. Today’s PPC prices are inflated and competition is soaring. Many simply are forced out as paid ads are swallowing businesses profits.

Google innovates new ways of advertising, but it seems to me that it all is going to address large brands and corporation. For example YouTube’s branded channel will cost you a modest 25K.

So what’s the conclusion?
Ok, maybe I’m a pessimist, but in the light of current events such as the credit crunch and general slowdown in US and world economy, many small businesses are closing down their PPC activities and turning their back on Google.

And its not a last hit- Google share price has drop to $450.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.

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