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Google has a website full of garbage, knockoffs, fraud and spam too, that they make ludicrous amounts of money advertising and shield with fake customer support

Google has a website full of garbage, knockoffs, fraud and spam too, that they make ludicrous amounts of money advertising and shield with fake customer support and email loops. It's an anomaly that these companies are allowed to keep the profit without tax or liability.

smt88 9y ago
Google makes a lot of money from its keyword protection racket. Many users will type, for example, "facebook" into their address bar. The browser searches Google, and whoever bought the ads will be on top. Facebook can't allow any other company to come up first, and so they pay. Many, many ad clicks work this way, and I consider it to be a dark pattern at best, but similar to fraud at worst.
- NicoJuicy 9y ago
  Google does this too for their own products, I'm just wondering what the CPC would be internally
- Dylan16807 9y ago
  Would you ban all ads related to brand names? I think facebook feeling the "need" to buy those ad slots is their own problem.
  - smt88 9y ago
    OK, try a company other than Facebook. What about a company with many competitors buying ads against their name? Or a small company fighting ads from counterfeiters? I'm not suggesting a solution to this. The core issue is that most ads are bad for users, and an ad business can never be truly harmless to its "product" -- the users.
    - Dylan16807 9y ago
      > OK, try a company other than Facebook. Not much difference in my mind. > The core issue is that most ads are bad for users That's true even if the ad is for "potato", though. I'm not ready to call the very concept of ads a racket, even if it's generally negative.
- home_boi 9y ago
  Are there public numbers for this?
  - smt88 9y ago
    No, but individual sites have sometimes published their own data about, so we know it happens and is expensive, but not the aggregate numbers.
- rrjanbiah 9y ago
  Isn't the same reason Google was fined in India lately? http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/abuse-of-dominant-position-cci-fines-google-rs-136-crore-for-search-bias-in-india-5056653/ http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/abuse-of...

smt88 9y ago

Google makes a lot of money from its keyword protection racket. Many users will type, for example, "facebook" into their address bar. The browser searches Google, and whoever bought the ads will be on top. Facebook can't allow any other company to come up first, and so they pay. Many, many ad clicks work this way, and I consider it to be a dark pattern at best, but similar to fraud at worst.

NicoJuicy 9y ago
Google does this too for their own products, I'm just wondering what the CPC would be internally
Dylan16807 9y ago
Would you ban all ads related to brand names? I think facebook feeling the "need" to buy those ad slots is their own problem.
- smt88 9y ago
  OK, try a company other than Facebook. What about a company with many competitors buying ads against their name? Or a small company fighting ads from counterfeiters? I'm not suggesting a solution to this. The core issue is that most ads are bad for users, and an ad business can never be truly harmless to its "product" -- the users.
  - Dylan16807 9y ago
    > OK, try a company other than Facebook. Not much difference in my mind. > The core issue is that most ads are bad for users That's true even if the ad is for "potato", though. I'm not ready to call the very concept of ads a racket, even if it's generally negative.
home_boi 9y ago
Are there public numbers for this?
- smt88 9y ago
  No, but individual sites have sometimes published their own data about, so we know it happens and is expensive, but not the aggregate numbers.
rrjanbiah 9y ago
Isn't the same reason Google was fined in India lately? http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/abuse-of-dominant-position-cci-fines-google-rs-136-crore-for-search-bias-in-india-5056653/ http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/abuse-of...