GOOGLE, the super-powerful search engine
Everyone knows that “Google” is the undisputed world leader in search engines.
It’s true, of course, that “Google” is a very powerful search engine, offering a whole range of useful and powerful tools “free of charge”!
But is it really free, is it a good thing, and are there no serious rivals?
Let’s find out.
“GOOGLE, the overpowered American search engine!
An overpowered search engine with an inordinate market share!
Google has a market share of almost 95%. For your information, its biggest competitor, the world’s No. 2 “Bing”, has less than 3% market share!
As for the French search engine “Qwant” or the eco-friendly search engine “Ecosia” are both below 1%.
And don’t forget, thanks to this overwhelming domination, it generated over $136,000,000,000 in 2018! Over $30 billion in profits!
It’s clear, then, that “Google” dominates the Internet search sector by a landslide. In fact, it’s part of our daily lives and habits, and we’ve even verbalised its name to mean ‘to search the Internet’!
The problem is that with this enormous success comes colossal power, and to this day, it’s all-powerful and can do just about anything it wants!
And it doesn’t hold back:
– It uses, stores and shares our personal data for advertising purposes to generate ever greater profits.
– It bombards us with targeted “Ad” ads on its search engine.
– It doesn’t hesitate to change the order of search results according to its own criteria.
– It closes customer accounts without verification, explanation, discussion or recourse.
– It upsets its search results ranking several times a year with surprise updates.
– It modifies the appearance of sites in search results, according to its own criteria, highlighting those it deems “best”.
– It imposes its own rules on all websites, rules that are constantly changing.
– It auctions keywords.
– It avoids taxation through unfair tax optimization, so that it doesn’t have to pay taxes in many countries around the world, where it generates enormous profits.
All the above points are not exceptional in themselves but, because of “Google’s” almost total monopoly, are taking on enormous proportions and generating consequences that can sometimes prove dangerous or disastrous.
For example:
– It can easily put its values forward, influence a trend or impose its vision of the world.
– We have now become the product of “Google”, which at any given moment puts forward highly targeted products with the aim of getting us to spend more and more money.
– It has the right of life or death over sites (businesses and companies) that work exclusively online, and thus jeopardizes sites that are nevertheless serious and effective, with several years of experience, without any clear reason or explanation. (Example: CCN is Shutting Down after Google’s June 2019 Core Update)
– It no longer serves the average web surfer, who is the one who brings it the most profit, and only the very big fish manage to attract its attention!
– It costs the state a lot of money, indirectly increasing our taxes!
What’s more, search results aren’t as good as we think they are, because with the sale of keywords, commercial results can be misleading. And then there are the filters that suggest results according to your “profile”, which amounts to locking you into a bubble. It will also always favor its own services over those of the competition.
That said, Google isn’t the big bad wolf either! It also does a lot of good things (research, development, various aids), it employs a lot of people around the world, it offers quality services and tools,…
It’s really the quasi-totality of the monopoly it holds that’s unhealthy and poses a real problem.
Only a fair balance of market shares could resolve the situation before it gets any worse.
There are, however, serious, respectful and effective alternatives which, if a little more promoted, could compete with the Net behemoth and thus distribute power more evenly.
There’s Bing and Yahoo, of course, but there are other lesser-known search engines offering solutions that are just as effective in terms of search, and which have the added merit of being better adapted to our needs.
Here are 2 that should catch your attention:
QWANT :
An excellent French search engine that respects the privacy of its users:
– It leaves no cookies on our machines.
– It stores no search history.
– It uses a limited number of ads. (2 per page.)
– It doesn’t change the order of results at will.
– It pays its taxes in the country where it generates its income.
Click here to find out more about “Qwant“.
ECOSIA :
German search engine that respects the environment:
– It is 100% powered by renewable energies.
– It donates 80% of its profits to reforestation projects.
– It does not share our personal information.
– It anonymizes all searches after one week.
Click here to find out more about “Ecosia“.
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