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Why Google Offends me So

What it is about Google Search that I find so Offensive


I used to like Google. That was some time ago. Google's original search was good, and it even started to include some of my pages. More importantly, the results were relevant. There was something about the programming at Google which meant that they could find decent results when other search engines failed to.

Those times are long gone. In my opinion Google has now got too big for its boots. This is part of the Google Problem. There are various things about Google that offend me, or that I find offensive. I thought you might be interested to hear about this, and it may help to explain why I have written so much stuff that's so hardline about Google, for example these pages about Google, most notably the Parody of Google Updates! So, here's what I find so offensive about Google of late:

* Google has down-rated my website. But my site is as good as it's been for the past twelve years, and it goes on expanding. I haven't gone anything wrong, so whatever reason Google has for down-rating it is false. Presumably Google is falsely accusing it of being some sort of over-optimised webspam type of a thing. Well it plainly is NOT. Google is falsely accusing me, and I find that offensive!

* In addition to floccinaucinihilipilificating my website, Google is also churning out rubbish search results. It didn't used to. The search results used to be really good, but recently the search quality has diminished so badly that people are seriously starting to question whether Google has gone to seed, or become a victim of its own corporate greed, or some other paranoid type of a thing. I am offended by the reduction of quality of Google's search, just as surely as I would be disgusted if a shop I'd trusted for years to have quality items on sale suddenly started selling poor quality stuff and charging too much.

* Google is not contactable. This I also find offensive. Google has got too big for its boots. Look, you can write to the Queen of England, and someone at The Palace will reply on her behalf. You can write to the President of the USA, and someone at the Whitehouse will reply. You can even write to Father Christmas and there's a reasonably good chance you'll get a reply. But you can't write to God and you can't write to Google, because both have an opinion of themselves that's too grandiose to allow them to respond. You might forgive God for that, or you might not. (It's easier for an Atheist to forgive God for failing to reply on account of the idea that there is no such thing). However, Google has no such excuse. Google definitely exists, and Google's opinion of itself is probably higher than it merits. I am not offended by Google thinking it's like God, and there are people I have met in the mental hospital who have that sort of belief. However, I am offended at Google being aloof and uncontactable. That is crass corporate hubris, and smacks of unaccountability.

* Another thing I find offensive about Google is the fact they have been given a position of public trust, and they have betrayed that trust. Specifically, they have betrayed my trust. I am not the only one. I trusted Google to be honest and to do the right things, and I consider my trust in Google has been betrayed, as they are currently doing the WRONG things. (And, they are also doing them in the wrong order).

To draw an analogy: We trust the National Trust to look after stately homes and ancient monuments that are national treasures. Now supposing the National Trust was sold off and floated on the Stockmarket, and started demolishing these period pieces of architectural heritage, and ripping the insides out of stately homes and turning them into flats for profit, we would be justifiedly offended! They would have betrayed our trust. Of course the National Trust isn't going to do that, but what Google has done in their vandalism of the Internet is equivalent to that!

Producing poor search results when better was expected, Page Title Vandalism, allowing garbage to outdo worthwhile stuff, these are at the very least signs of unprofessionalism, but I think it goes further than that. I think it's a cynical misuse of power. Well so is the Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp, but that's run by a government that invades other countries. We expect better of a private enterprise company. When they don't behave better, it's offensive. It's at least as offensive as Eurostar, and that's even before the terrible disaster.

* I am also slightly miffed, though not necessarily offended, that Google would have the gall to phone me and to try to sell me advertising, when they are guilty of damaging natural search. My response was that reviewing and reconsidering the natural search situation was a precondition of any advertising deal. They then played the "it's another department" card. Well I could play that game too, as I am a schizophrenic. The difference is, at least I talk to myself, whereas Google, it seems, does not. They say there's no communication with the other departments. This suggests it's more of a psychopath, where it's not got any sympathy or idea of responsibility for that which it does. That's a big problem!

* I am also offended that Google apparently fails to understand the importance of privacy. It seems to have swallowed the Facebook rubbish about people's privacy not being important. However, there's already a public outrage and backlash against the Facebook problem.

There's a big difference between Google and Facebook. Facebook is almost completely without any merit, and so it's a simple situation of denouncing them at every point. In contrast, Google used to be some good, and has now fallen from grace. It's kind of an inverse prodigal son, a Satanic inversion of a biblical proverb. This in a perverse way makes Google more deplorable than would otherwise be the case.

* The hypocrisy is also offensive to some extent. Google says various things and yet at the same time appears to behave in a way counter to that. It's like someone saying "I'm a strict vegetarian, and you should be a strict vegetarian too, because killing and eating animals is murder", and then a bit later they have killed your pet dog and they are roasting it on the barbecue to eat as meaty snacks.


Also see: The Google Problem , Satire on Google Updates , and other pages about Google