I read this title and instantly related to it from the business owner / SEM / SEO perspective Google controls 90% of search and that's where most consumers sta

I read this title and instantly related to it from the business owner / SEM / SEO perspective Google controls 90% of search and that's where most consumers start their journey The current state of the union with Google for businesses, especially small business / local business, is a disaster - Bidding on your own keyword, to prevent competitors from showing up as #1 - currently consumes 15 - 25% of total paid budget across a number of businesses we own. It's literally just a 1@%!@% tax. - Google constantly rolls out tests in the name of "quality" - recently for local businesses "hours of operation" became a search signal. Pragmatic enough right? But instantly the spammers started doing 24/7 hours with fake phone numbers etc registered. The road to hell is paved with good intentions they say, this is a constant theme with Google where they come up with some great idea, and then can't figure out how to defend vs the spammers creating massive headaches, costs, etc. - Google continually takes away visibility and contrl. EG their new AI budget manager takes further visibility away. Right now it drives a little efficiency. But when everybody has it? It will optimize SMB (and everybody else) to the fracture line. And NOW we are going to spend our precious life trying to figure out how the !%!@ to engage with an LLM (that Google doesnt' even understand)? I just want to give up. Honestly it's no wonder that private equity is gobbling up everything from dental practices, to plumbers, to HOUSING It's become such a crazy sophisticated game that nobody else can play and survive