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Holy sh*t... I& #39;m reading through the US Congress& #39; trove of internal Google docs (avail here: https://judiciary.house.gov/online-platforms-and-market-power/).">https://judiciary.house.gov/online-pl... They keep saying the quiet parts loud.
A thread of anti-competitive, unequal-treatment, and sometimes shockingly brazen use of their monopoly powers /1
A thread of anti-competitive, unequal-treatment, and sometimes shockingly brazen use of their monopoly powers /1
Google& #39;s internal emails to make sure Dell machines ship with G as the default search engine, discourage a Dell-branded browser homepage, use Google Toolbar if Dell insists on including Microsoft& #39;s IE...
They don& #39;t even try to pretend it& #39;s about anything but moat-building.
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They don& #39;t even try to pretend it& #39;s about anything but moat-building.
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From a 2007 thread. This one& #39;s gonna be relevant when Sundar Pichai tries to claim that search is a competitive market and anyone is welcome to build a better engine. Ditto for when G claims their entry into vertical search was to "help users" vs. "prevent competition." /3
SEOs are gonna LOVE this one:
- Yes, Google uses "user signals, like clicks."
- Yes, Google has a measure of "domain" authority.
- Yes, they machine-learn against human rating data
All those denials all those years, but here it is, all laid out in the internal docs. /4
- Yes, Google uses "user signals, like clicks."
- Yes, Google has a measure of "domain" authority.
- Yes, they machine-learn against human rating data
All those denials all those years, but here it is, all laid out in the internal docs. /4
Appears Google has their own internal numbers on web traffic they compare to panels like Comscore. We know they also bought clickstream data from folks like the now-shuttered Jumpshot.
Interesting to see fear about people data stated with MySpace, then migrated to Facebook.
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Interesting to see fear about people data stated with MySpace, then migrated to Facebook.
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Google knows they have a huge impact on other businesses (even eBay+Amazon) when they bias to their own properties in SERPs. Earlier in this doc, they talk about using the "onebox" to win in product search. Again, relevant for if/when they claim that& #39;s not their true goal.
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Remember how, in 2018, Congress asked Sundar Pichai what % of clicks Google sends to other websites vs. their own properties, and he said "we don& #39;t track that"
And then I published some clickstream data https://sparktoro.com/blog/how-much-of-googles-search-traffic-is-left-for-anyone-but-themselves/">https://sparktoro.com/blog/how-... about it? Funny story... They *DO* track that.
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And then I published some clickstream data https://sparktoro.com/blog/how-much-of-googles-search-traffic-is-left-for-anyone-but-themselves/">https://sparktoro.com/blog/how-... about it? Funny story... They *DO* track that.
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For folks who complain that Google& #39;s acquisitions in the crazy buying sprees of 2005-2015 were some combination of defensive maneuvering against MS & Yahoo!, and were brokered behind the scenes by powerful VCs... Yeah... That& #39;s pretty much right.
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Google worried that if they didn& #39;t become the search leader in verticals like travel, local, etc. other companies might be able to compete... And then they talk about how owning general search data gave them a unfair advantage over other players.
The quiet part is so loud!
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The quiet part is so loud!
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That& #39;s a wrap folks. There& #39;s loads more to discover and take away for yourself if you& #39;d like to read through the docs, which the US House of Representatives makes available to all https://judiciary.house.gov/online-platforms-and-market-power/
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