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Why I don?t like Google

by on10 April 2008

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Column: The dark side of the business


I spend
a lot of time thinking whether to use this title or not, but I have decided to write what everybody knows, but no one dares to tell.

Just so I don't start getting dozens of hate mails, I do use Google as a search engine on a daily basis, but this doesn’t mean I have to like its business practices. This is the story we’ve heard from a small publisher, yet someone who does business with Google. Just to be sure, I am after Google’s ill business practices and I am sure that this won’t be posted in Google's news section. If you are small publisher you really have to accept any money that Google wants to offer.

Many do not know that Google makes most of its money on advertising, or something that you might know as Google ads or ad sense. In case you have a small Website and you want to pay some bills or hosting the easiest way is to put the Google ads. Well, any revenue is better than none and most of people will still go for it.

You go through a painful registration process and after you are registered the big Google promises to send you the post mail letter with some code to prove that you do exist. Google wants your address and your account so it can pay you whatever you earn. At this point you are quite enthusiastic about it and Google never indicates how much you can earn, so you are clearly in Google's favor and and at their mercy here. They can pay you whatever they want.

Then you read the part that Google will pay up to thirty days after the end of the calendar month, at least in the standard option. That is not all" the standard delivery checks are sent by regular mail and they will arrive 2-3 weeks after the mailing date. If you want the money faster than you pick the Secured Express Delivery that should speed up the process and get your money to you between 5 to 10 days. Of course, this will cost you an additional $29.99.

This is just the beginning, as after you place your adds and after a month and millions of impressions of Google ads the real disappointment comes. Basically, Google pays you next to nothing for any click through. It is definitely in cents, not in dollars, and you end up with a hundred or two bucks for a few million Google ads impressions; and this hard earned money gets wired to you weeks after you've earned it.

If you are, however, a big publisher then you get a custom deal. This is far better and with this you can earn some serious money, but Google tends to be rather picky about who it works with. In online publishing, it can take years until you get a decent Google deal; and until then they will be really exploiting your business. You can compare the small publisher to workers in Third world sweatshops.

So that is why I do not like Google business practices.

Last modified on 10 April 2008
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