5 December 2008
· Filed under Regulatory, Search Engine Marketing · Tagged competition commission, google, yellow pages
Entelligence recently filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of South Africa against Google South Africa. We contend that Google is guilty of breaking fundamental laws within the Competition Act, and that Google SA has been guilty of inducing a supplier (Entelligence) to not deal with a customer (Yellow Pages). The original press release can be found here. It is surprising that Google, the company that has ‘dismissed Entelligence’s claims as being without merit’ has actually resorted to censoring the negative publicity within its Google News platform.
Google News Censored?
A quick search on Google News for ‘investec moneyweb’ presents a host of articles by MoneyWeb on Investec. A quick search on Google News for ‘entelligence moneyweb’ returns no results, even when ‘all dates’ are selected on the archive option. Despite many articles being available across the world wide web in recognized ‘news websites’, Google’s incredible technology seemingly fails to find the word ‘entelligence’ – in the very places where it once did prior to us filing against them with the Competition Commission. Whilst I acknowledge that Google has the right to censor Google – after all – it’s their platform, I do find it a little surprising considering that Google has historically supported freedom of speech and expression with so much vigour. Google provides users with access to porn, gambling, and obscure cult blogs, but they have censored negative publicity about themselves – which is even more surprising considering that they have dismissed our allegations in any event.
Competition Commission Latest
Entelligence’s complaint to the competition commission has been dealt with & although they acknowledged that Google ‘may be guilty of inducing a customer to not deal with a supplier’, they have been unable to establish that Google’s attempt to poach Yellow Pages would have a negative impact on the market place. Where the Competition Commission is an investigative body that makes decisions based on the information at hand, the tribunal is an adjudicating body, where we hope to win a ruling in our favour as we will be able to access otherwise private information to help demonstrate (a) the negative impact on the market that Google’s ongoing disintermediation of its own so called partners will have and (b) that Google’s actions are not isolated to the Entelligence/Yellow Pages debacle.
We have now formally filed with the Competition Tribunal, an environment in which we are able to force full disclosure of the market place by Google, and where we can subpoena our fellow SEM agencies who have also fallen foul of Google’s ethically challenged South African office, but are too afraid to speak up. Entelligence will publish all evidence furnished to the Competition Tribunal on this blog, where the world wide web can decide for themselves whether or not Google’s actions constitute abuse of dominance – we sure do!
To address the apparent Google News defect that prevents Entelligence related subject matter from being found, here are some of the articles relating to our competition case:
Google SA faces competition trouble
Google’s “don’t be evil” mantra tested
Google rubbishes competition claims
Google SA picks fight
Google SA probed for abusing its dominance
by Sean Riley
20 November 2008
· Filed under Search Engine Marketing · Tagged google, google agencies
Many customers in South Africa are confused about who should manage their online marketing campaigns. With Google South Africa disintermediating the industry in many cases, by directly pitching against their own certified professionals, customers are confused. When Google says ‘we can manage your Google ads better’ it’s pretty obvious that most customers out there will automatically accept that as fact. Agencies such as ourselves have to win the business based on good old fashioned delivery, metrics, and hard fact. It’s hard to compete in an environment like this, but here’re 5 reasons why any company should think twice before they let Google manage their budget directly.
- Independence
How can a single entity manage ad campaigns for 10 competitors? As a customer, you need to partner with an agency that has your interests at heart. Most agencies (as do traditional ad agencies) ensure that there are never conflicts of interest – you can’t sell home loans online for 10 competitors – when that happens everyone loses. For this reason, Google has internationally embraced agencies – but alas, South Africa is different. Every customer deserves the attention of an independent agency that has their interests at heart. Conflicts of interest mean the customer always loses.
- Google is one part of much bigger picture
Customers need to work with agencies that understand that Google is part of a whole bigger picture. As customers flock to Google to sell their wares, the auction pricing model means that economic viability begins to be challenged as competition grows. Customers need a comprehensive online marketing strategy, of which Google is an important part – but not the only part.
- What are Google’s objectives?
Does Google understand each customers unique objectives? Our experience has seen Google South Africa setting ‘expenditure targets’ for customers rather than identifying with the customers goals. Is the goal conversion (sales/leads), traffic only, or brand development? Google receives the ad spend so they are always better off when a customer spends more. Many agencies do not charge a % of ad budget managed and rather rely on flat rates – this highlights the objectivity that an agency can introduce. Most customers would by happy with lower spend and increased results – this is in direct contrast to what is Good for Google.
- Relationship
Customers need to build a relationship with someone that has the time to meet regularly, understand their requirements, their competitive landscape, and their unique challenges. Agencies offer this.
- Competence
The assumption is there that Google will always create better ads on Google than what agencies can. Our experience has shown that this is not necessarily the case. Most agencies in South Africa have been doing what they do for longer than what Google South Africa’s staff have been doing it. The agencies understand the local market place and have developed rich skillsets around Google’s product set and other advertising channels.
Ultimately, the beauty of search engine marketing is that it can be measured. If any customer isn’t sure whether or not they should allow Google SA to directly manage their account, I suggest splitting the budget between an agency and Google and measuring performance. If Google manages the budget better – by all means use them – I just can’t see that happening.
by Sean Riley
12 September 2008
· Filed under Search Engines · Tagged alternative search engines, google, wikia
As we all know, Google represents the dominant force in search engines globally. Even more so here in Sunny South Africa. And Google does what they do so well – hence their success.
Whilst Entelligence has suffered at the hands of Google South Africa’s questionable ethics, on the whole, Google is the King of Search. But do you always find what you want? And with Search Engine Optimization becoming a reality – are we seeing optimized results or the right results?
Can other search engines do it better? Recently there was alot of hype about the new CUIL search engine (www.cuil.com) – whilst results are displayed in a new, consumable manner, the actual quality of the results are not good. Yet. I hope they get it right. Something that search engines haven’t addressed well is that we all think differently. Are you a big picture person or a details person? How would you like your information delivered today?
There are many alternative search engines out there, but after fiddling for hours, I’d have to say that the only real serious contender to Google, right now, is Wikia.com – yes – this summer, from the makers of Wikipedia, you get a complete search engine too. Better yet, it’s all based on open source search technology!
What makes a good Search Engine?
Here’re my thoughts on what makes a search engine good:
- New information is indexed quickly. This is where Google leads. Yahoo & MSN get there eventually, but Google consumes new data at a rate that no one has matched. Wikia’s distributed spider network is a good start towards competing in this respect.
- Results are delivered fast. I don’t want to wait for a minute. I want information & I want it NOW.
- The results delivered are highly relevant to my search criteria. Still lots of room for improvement here. Search engines still seem to match our keywords to keywords within site content. What about on a conceptual level? What about at a factual level?
- Result layouts make sense to me. To Me. That’s the key. We’re all different. I want the results in formats that I like. Yes, I may want 5 conceptual results, 5 results that people I know accessed recently, and 5 factual matches to my keyword.
Welcome to a new era of search – it’s around the corner – who’ll be first?
by Sean Riley
