by Javier Marti in another forum:
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As Microsoft before it, Google is getting more and more evil by the day.
I write about it to some extent in the mobibook, but wanted you guys to have the latest info...
As some of you may know, Google recently rolled out an improved version of their mobile search service. I invite you to play with it here:
http://www.google.com/xhtml
This article
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050313-4696.html
talks about it, and it is recommended reading. However, if you want the short version with comments:
Basically, my opinion for a long time has been that Google wants to be THE pipe, and will do almost anything necessary to become your main, essential access tool to the online world -before on a PC, and now on mobile. This "anything" includes modifying your web pages, transcoding them and including their own links so that users can easliy go back to Google's search results should they not like the information that you provide.
But that's not the only important thing to note:
To start with, traditional websites, video, image results, blogs and sponsored results are all mixed in moble search results. Mobile friendly websites are highlithed only by a tiny little green phone at the end of the search result (*), like this:
Bank of America | About Bank of America Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, ...
https://www.bankofamerica.com/mobil...
also,
"you can search locally by entering something like "pizza 45202" (think on the long term impact of this, on geo domains)
and
"Google also inserts links at the bottom of each chunk that lead to "metapages" about the page you're viewing like "links on this page", links that take you back to your results, and back to a blank search form." (**)
(so they keep you in the Google loop for as long as possible, learning more about you: search history, location, preferences...)
Finally, the author of the piece wisely asks:
"Will there be a similar uprising by the same people now that Google is publicly advertising this service?"
my answer is "not really". I mean that yes, there will be the typical complaints in the blogosphere by content providers (webmasters like us in this forum) and search engine optimizers...but this is a tiny fraction and disorganized group of people around the world whose complaints will be quickly forgotten (as were their complaints about Google's paid links banning policies)
So, in the great scheme of things, Google will still do what they want, and disguise it -admirably well, I have to admit- as doing it "for the common good".
They may be stopped later by being forced to split in smaller divisions, as I predicted before -read antitrust litigation- but this will/may only happen after they gotten even much more powerful than they are now. By then however, it may be too late to stop them, since even governments will have fallen in Google's "lovely-cuty-bunch-of-services0we-can't-live-without" (TM!), and this will give them power to lobby and oposse any legislation that does not benefit them. Great plan, isn't it? The pinnacle of business evil in motion, before our very eyes. Great strategy!
..
How does all this affect dotmobi? Well, naysayers have a point when they say that Google is not supporting dotmobi, as their mobile search results today show.
However, as more and more corporations adopt .mobi and advertise it, the extension will become more popular even against Google's and naysayer's wishes. Thus, I dont' think the extension is in danger because of this. The key, and main selling point for dotmobi is in the size of screens, and the size of our pockets and our hands, which won't change much for the next 500 years at the least. More in the book...
Having said that...and for those of you who dream with Google defaulting to .mobi (something plausible in the medium, but not short term) I would invite you not to expect Google to actively back up .mobi anytime soon, in any way...because it won't happen.
To an extent, .mobi -or any medium or tool that allows users to roam the Internet sans Google help- is Google's enemy, since they don't want to be your search portal any longer...they want you to go back to them again and again and click on their results... and learn more about you so that they can target you better.
(In fact they are pursuing this strategy so unscrupulously that they are soon to start experiencing the kind of bad PR that Msoft had for so long, and ultimately brought down their reputation, but that's another story... )
In the meantime -since they are an advertising brokerage company, not a search company anymore- they won't hesitate to provide content competing with .mobi's core idea if necessary, as they are doing right now.
Although I previously thought they were rather neutral, I am starting to think that naysayers are right, Google is in a way against .mobi...because .mobi represents the free internet, out of Google's reach. "Nothing personal .mobi...we just want the whole cake"
Bonus links:
http://www.avalon5.com/images/evilgoogle.jpg
http://stuhasic.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/drevil.jpg
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By writing this I am going against one of the biggest companies in the planet, so if something happens to me...blame Google!
I am becoming the only thing in the world that Google may be more interested in losing than finding. (egocentrism kicking in there big time!)
*now is that not evil or what?
** now is that not even more evil?
,
