One question: Were your sites hit?

Matt Cutts leans back in his chair with a smirk, pops the cork on the champagne and tells the team

"The signs of success are coming in. Penguin 2. Mission accomplished guys. Great work"

Nah, seriously man?

1. Only in your world. Most of the world have never even had a computer, never mind internet. But for the small part of the world your talking about, it's a matter of personal choice which Search engine to use.

2. They generate revenue by displaying pages on "THEIR" website however they see fit. Just like you do on "YOUR" website.

3. No they don't. I posted the News report the other day on the main forum. They sat down, looked at the Tax system. And found the best method of accounting to pay the least amount of Taxes. And everything they do is well within the legal framework of any given country. Your telling me, you an everyone else on the planet does not do the very same thing?

If you don't like the game. Then don't play the game.

Google is a business, like yours. If you were running the world, you also wouldn't want to be regulated.

@webby0031

When I took a big hit last year I was an emotional wreck... just like you I was starting threads about the big bad Google... it's a natural reaction!

The best thing is to switch your PC off and take a few days away from this IM/SEO game. Go and enjoy life and try and put things behind you. Thereafter get back on your bike and start afresh if that is what you want! Adjust your strategy or completely overhaul it... you will know what to do once you have refuelled

If you ask me, they should be regulated only because they plan to shut down Google Reader. I still cannot believe that they decided to do that, especially because they know that it was used mainly by more experienced and more versed internet users, akka geeks. :rolleyes:

Sorry. I don't want to live in a completely socialist society. Free market will take care of itself.

Apple held the majority of the smartphone market. They stopped innovating. Now they are losing market share dramatically. If Google fails to provide a service people like and continue to use, same thing will happen to them.

As far as taxes... all big corporations do it. Apple is one of the worst, but everyone loves Apple. They can do no wrong. Of course they have to put suicide prevention nets outside their factories... but yeah, no big deal.

Governments need money.

Regulation gets money.

Google has money.

One day Google will face more and more regulations designed at transferring money to the government.

Google will slip the noose and find a loophole to get out of it

If you don't want other people opinions about a topic, don't start it in an open forum...

Every response you've posted above has been either rude or didn't make sense at all.

And for starters, you should do research before starting threads like this and you would have seen that Google is one of the most regulated companies by the SEC and FTC in the United States and is regulated by several bodies in the United Kingdom as well.

So what exactly do you mean that they aren't regulated? Oh wait... let me guess... your little website has been spamming blogs and forums and now is ranking as good anymore. I'm sure you wish that someone important enough to make a difference would stand up for your little website, but it's not going to happen because at the end of the day, Google still owns itself. If they choose to change their algorithm they have every right to do is as long as they are working with the law.

Google will only be 'regulated' when Bing and Yahoo get their act together and increase their market share

Technology is evolving too fast and we should be able to adopt new changes. Anyway, if a business depends only on Google, then that can't be said a long-term and successful business strategy. Last Google update [April 2012] affected me too and I was really disappointed that time. But not anymore!

There are so many online business out there who doesn't depend on Google at all. Forget about SEO..

1. Which big company has not big influences? That is what you get when you are big.

2. You talk about manipulating, something what 99 percent of the users of this board also do. Manipulating the SERP by building backlinks or something else which has influence on the SERP (e.g. social websites).

3. Define exploit? They pay low tax on a certain income which is 100 percent legal. If you should blame someone for this then you should blame the government(s). Instead of working together and improving society they create chaos.

I assume your websites got hit by the recent updates. But I bet you violated the Google guidelines which a pretty clear. When you get caught, yeah that sucks but you knew the risk certainly if you aim only on organic traffic. No need to cry or to be outraged against people like Cutts. Like he is personally responsible for all Google doings.

Webby? You also have the feeling that the whole world is against you?

Google should throw away all their shit algos, and make an auction for their search results. So depending on competition we could rent a certain serp position for a query. Then mix up the results with some official and verified websites, like wikipedia and other bullsh. That would instantly kill all the spammers, and get them billions of bucks. Lol These douchebags actually need to admit that ranking can and are actually being bought, and that their algos are crooked anyway.

Nah......you need to be regulated

It's funny that every single person on this forum wants to be successful with their own business, yet when sites like Google or Microsoft are successful (for the most part) some people jump on them like it's a witch hunt.

Look around at all the Google failures, they've blown multi million dollar budgets to test things over the years. Googles success didn't happen by accident.

I guess it's just another Google did me wrong thread, because the average person on the web doesn't have a problem with anything Google does.

I remember the days when Yahoo, Altavista and Looksmart were the most popular search engines. Google only has as much power as we give it.

Start using a different search engine and make it your mission to tell 20 people per day: "Google is broken, use Bing." Put it in your email signature, put it on your business cards, get a t-shirt printed.

At least you will feel a little better.

Yeah it will be better if people start using an alternative to Google like Bing or similar, but unfortunately there is none that will be close to Big G in terms of relevancy in search results.

ya can you please let us know whether our website has been penalized or not?

To be honest, Google doesn't care about your website unless you're paying them for Adwords.

Maybe his/her sites weren't supposed to be hit.

Most crappy or blackhat site owners never complain when their site gets hit coz they know why...

Anybody else notice the irony in #2

Some good points here. The fact is Google is regulated to a certain extent already. What should be addressed are when such companies enter a niche with no better product, huge budgets (they can afford to lose) and force prices (and margins) to the bottom. It happens in all industries, on and offline, and it's a real concern for SMEs. The solution though, like anything else, is to build something (and hopefully patent it) which they either can't compete with or have to buy.

Seeing as I touched on it, patent abuse (US especially) is another major issue and something Apple, Google and Samsung are grossly guilty of. Huge teams patenting all manner of things, even existing production methods, just to trip up competition and protect niches which might never even exist. Even in situations where the patent should never have been awarded, try being the SME who attempts to defend themselves against suspected patent misuse - the legal costs alone would, and do, cripple most.

Webby

it's NOT Googles Fault!!! it's the people's fault.

why??

All google did was use one of the most influential words in the English language

FREE!!!

you see the masses of people and I would even speculate you are also part of the problem is that people would do just about anything

for FREE

all you have to do is give up your privacy, your spending habits, basically your online presence. etc

they have grown to todays monster because of this one main point

they offer services for free or near free and in a short amount of time they became what it is today.

similar to todays government

Their a company who offers a free product for most of their users. They have full rights to do whatever it is they want with their product. If people don't like it then they will use another product. It is really that simple. No regulation needed, let the people regulate.

It can be a little heart breaking when you drop in the SERPs but I have nothing but praise for Google and its users. They have made me a very rich man.

1. They only have influence because they offer free services that millions of people willingly choose to use every day. As soon as someone else offers a better product, Google will lose market share.

2. You don't know what you're talking about.

3. I'm sure Google is only as questionable in their tax filings as every other large international company.