|
First, if you don’t know, Google changed its algorithm last month. This is the computer code that determines how websites show up in a user search. Google changing its algorithm is not a big deal. They do it quite regularly.
What Google did this time was effectively exclude consulting firms who specialize in what is called Search Engine Optimization. The changes have caused uproar among webmasters in that line of work. SEO focused message boards are filled with chatter about Google being a monopoly and more.
A related note to this is the first of what may be many legal suits against Google for what the plaintiff is calling arbitrary and capricious determination of what websites do/do not get included in Google.
Here is one specific forum where the Google / Monopoly debate is raging:
http://www.searchengineforums.com/Forum28/HTML/004630.html
Here is the URL of the company who is suing Google. This location also includes scanned copies of the lawsuit:
http://www.searchking.com/news/sknews.htm
The judge may throw out this lawsuit once it is heard. However, there is a very substantial issue at hand that is only going to gain momentum: Google’s domination of search engine results and the distribution of them.
If you are an ebook author, a self-publishing author or just interested in the search engine marketing business, this is a topic that will ultimately affect you in some material way.
This has all the makings of another AT&T or Microsoft. Keep your eyes open and voice your opinion in the online forum of your choice.
|