[Question] Google just another big company

[IanF]

From my perspective it looks like Google is becoming another big company trying to make money at every turn.
Two reasons I say this:
1) When you search on google for the top results link you to an website full of google ads, so it is better to search on Yahoo or Bing.
2)We have 2 adword accounts running which where setup as prepay accounts, these run your ads until your balance runs out then you can topup. That is great as we topup with R200 a time. Now Google went and changed one account to post pay and we owed them R60 so we paid R200 and asked them to change it back to prepay. This can only be done by email. They have replied we must pay R500 into the account then they will switch us back to prepay as they had given us a R500 credit limit. While we will get value for the money eventually it feels like extortion and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. So in the meantime we have to watch the account carefully as google has taken away a safeguard on our spending.

Has anyone else noticed a shift in Google's operations?

[Dave A]

1) When you search on google for the top results link you to an website full of google ads, so it is better to search on Yahoo or Bing.

Which search engine tends to produce the most relevant search results?

In the past I've found Yahoo and Bing disappointing. Have they upped their game?

[Mark Atkinson]

Well I'm running a Google Adwords campaign, and doing so in the web design industry is most certainly NOT cheap. It almost seems like extortion when you're paying R20+ everytime somebody clicks on a little advert.

It just seems to me that Google is becoming more and more greedy over time.

[IanF]

Dave
I use bing and yahoo when I see links to hotfrog and ilead websites coming up. The results look fine, it is just this has got me worried if google manipulates results to suit their business of selling ads.

[Dave A]

At times I have quietly wondered if Adsense helps bump pages up the SERPs (and perhaps even hoped on occassion ). But I suggest you also need to consider:

• Google still has to produce relevant search results to keep their dominance in the search market.
• Google has repeatedly stated that Adsense does not affect their organic search results.
• Most people doing very well out of Adsense do SEO their pages for peak Google search performance - particularly those ghastly keyword stuffed scraper jobs. And Google has recently done their best to get those sorts of pages out of their search results - with some success I might add.

Google is, and has been gamed by people trying to make money out of their Adsense program for years. All said, the fact that despite this intense interest the idea of Adsense boosted organic Google SERPs remains only an occassional suspicion speaks volumes for where Google probably stands on this.

And I'd suggest that is when it comes to search: relevance remains king.

[wynn]

Having experimented with adsense 'prepaid pay per click' in the past (before the troubles mentioned above) I often wondered if there really were clicks on my ads or did Google just syphon the money away?

My reasoning is that although I advertised for a few months I never recieved even one enquiery?

[IanF]

Google adwords work for us just keep the cost per click low and don't use automatic bidding they keep on telling me I must change my bid to R15 to be on the first page of searches for the term business cards, ja right. Maybe I was just searching on the wrong searches as now the results seem better, or maybe I was annoyed by Google changing the one account.

Anyway they are now checking to see if we were ever on prepaid to see if they can move us back to prepaid.
The moral of the story is check these type of accounts at least once a week.

[IanF]

Looks like other people think Google manipulate the search results. The outcome of this will be interesting.

US antitrust authorities have launched a probe of internet search giant Google.

It’s official: US antitrust authorities have launched a probe of internet search giant Google.

“Yesterday, we received formal notification from the US Federal Trade Commission that it has begun a review of our business,” Google said Friday in its company blog.
.........
The agency will be investigating whether Google is using its position as the leading search engine to feed users into its own websites and services, rather than display links to competing markets, the newspaper reported.
Link

[Neville Bailey]

I am only paying an average of 23c per click on my Google Adwords campaign (set up via Marketing Motor), and I get an average of one lead per day, so I am very happy!

[IanF]

Neville,
That is good I am at 37 cents per click, it is money well spent.

[Mark Atkinson]

You guys are lucky. My average cost per click is R16! Some bids need to be at R30-R40 to even show on the first page of results.

Gotta love the saturated web design field...

Going to look to other forms of advertising.

[Pap_sak]

personally I think google is great! What other company would spends millions sending out hundreds of cars to take photographs of all the buildings in SA for googlemaps - and you get that info for free? Or scan 1000's of books and let you have that info for free? I have used google in quite a few formats many times over the years, and haven't paid them a cent yet...TOP MARKS

*disclaimer

I will be starting and add words account soon, my feelings on google could change shortly...lol

[mbsmit]

Hi there,

Big company, who makes my life a hell of a lot easier!

Regards

[mbsmit]

Hi there,

There are so many competition in my industry, that I pay R25 a click to get on top of the results. Its sad, but it works.

Regards

[IanF]

Here is someone else who has noticed this. Google admits What will the next search engine be?