Fighting Google’s Despotic Rule

DazzlinDonna brings up a good point about the latest Google (Toolbar) PR update that has everybody talking:

No one likes to feel like a puppet on a string. Google is the puppeteer (or Googateer) and webmasters are the puppets. At any given moment, the Googateer can yank on any string, controlling the movements of the puppets.

In other words the uproar is about loss of control by webmasters not really the downgrading of PR.

Donna finishes by asking:

The question we should all keep asking is…HOW DO WE CUT THE STRINGS?

This is a question I will endeavor to answer.

Fighting back against Google Dominating the Search Engine marketplace: A modest proposal:

1. Quit Using Google: Okay if you are an SEO you will need to check Google for business, but for your own personal searches use some other search engine for your default. I have not used Google for several years. It was hard to quit at first but now I don’t miss it. I have had the best luck using Clusty with Yahoo as a backup when Clusty fails. We as webmasters cannot just sit around and complain, we have to set an example.

2. Put other search engines on your sites: Either put up a straight search box for Yahoo, Live, Ask or Dmoz. Or switch to Live or Yahoo for site search. Michael Martinez prefers Live search for site search and I tend to agree with his conclusions. The point here is to expose the public to other search engines. It’s a long term process but SEO’s, web designers and webmasters crank out a lot of websites, and if we all started putting Live/MSN or Yahoo site search on each and every site I’m willing to bet that it would start having an impact.

3. Recommend other search engines to friends: let’s face it, when your friends learn that you make a living on the web they tend to turn to you for help with their computers. When I help set up a computer for an inexperienced user I generally talk to them about my concerns about Google and ask them if they want to try Yahoo for a couple of months as the default on their browser. Many didn’t even know Yahoo had search, many were happy to try and most have stuck with Yahoo as their default.

4. Get out of the Adwords Habit: Shift part of your pay per click ad budget to other pay per click engines. For business reasons quitting Adwords completely is impossible, but hey money talks, if enough people start moving their cash elsewhere it gets Google’s attention.

5. Don’t do Adsense: Quit putting Google Adsense ads on your websites. I know that is a hard thing to do but you will never break free of Google if you continue to be dependent on them for your income. When you take Caesar’s coin you accept Caesar’s rules.

6. Explain to the public why you are doing the above: make a web page on each of your sites explaining why you are doing the one or more of the things listed above. The web is a powerful place of ideas - use it.

7. Do not wait for others to join you: start implementing the the above suggestions right now. Others will join you or they will not but that should not effect your course.

I have been advocating most of these things since the Searchking lawsuit years ago - normally the only response I get is a stunning silence. Everybody is afraid to talk about what the web community can do to break Google’s control of the web but until people start doing something they will remain peons in Google’s fief.

Do you agree? Where am I wrong or what else would you suggest doing?

Tags: , google, search, Search Engines