As you may have heard, Google recently added functionality to their Google Trends tool that shows traffic data for most high traffic websites. I say “most” because there are a few sites that don’t display data in the Trends for Website searches… namely all of Google’s properties (google.com, youtube.com, etc.).

Naturally, Graywolf was all over this one and pointed out the problem immediately in his post Google’s Two Tiered Internet World Sinks to a New Low. Naturally I agreed with Michael but it wasn’t until Google representative, Matt Cutts, commented on the post that I really saw the full extent of Google’s arrogance on this matter. Cutts stated:

My personal guess is that given the brouhaha about Google metrics earlier this year (e.g. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/21/why-comscores-google-paid-click…/ ), maybe the team wanted to start cautiously so that estimates on a Labs product wouldn’t be taken as hard truth or as some sort of forward-looking guidance.

In Danny Sullivan’s post on the issue, he quotes this official statement from Google which echoes the same sentiment as Mr. Cutts’ response above:

We have a policy of not providing interim financial guidance, and have decided not to release Google numbers in accordance with that policy. We are always open to reconsidering decisions we’ve made, but at this point, for these financial guidance reasons, we do not share Google numbers in the Trends for Websites tool.

To boil this all down, Google is saying that they don’t want to give metrics on sites they own because it could damage the company financially. And, as Cutts pointed out, we’ve seen some precedence for that. When comScores released their paid click estimates, Google’s stock suffered.

So, what we have here is a) Google stating that releasing this data on websites could financially harm the company and yet b) Google releasing that very same data (which could financially harm the company) for THOUSANDS upon thousands of other websites!

The Google apologists among you will argue that’s not what Google is saying at all and that they’re just looking out for their own best interests. But I’m sorry, not even Google can have it both ways. Either releasing this data is harmful to the companies that own these websites, in which case Google just flipped the rest of the online world the bird and willfully damaged an incredible number of websites and companies, or releasing the data would not be harmful, and Google has absolutely no excuse for keeping theirs private.

Either way you slice it, it’s evident that the whole “do no evil” thing died a long time ago.

You know that scene in the Wizard of Oz where the great and powerful Oz is exposed as simply a little old man hiding behind a curtain? I keep waiting for that moment to come for Google. I keep waiting for the “Do no evil” candy colored facade to come crumbling down revealing Google’s true form as the monopolistic tyrant of the internet. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait a while longer.

Despite an impressive disregard for privacy, and an arrogant, hypocritical, two-tiered system of justice which favors big corporations and sites while punishing the “little guys”, Google still has the best reputation in corporate America. Well, at least according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive.

Now, I’m not quite sure whether that’s a vote of confidence in Google, or perhaps a sad commentary on corporate America (my guess is a bit of both), but one thing is clear… I must share some of the blame for this atrocity.

You see, while I was off working on other websites and online projects, this site has been neglected. And, while there have been others such as Aaron Wall and Michael Gray that have been pointing out Google’s hypocrisies and numerous failings, I have been inexcusably silent on several issues of significant importance.

But fear not, dear public, for I shall remain silent NO LONGER! Gevil.org is picking itself up, dusting itself off, and will once again be at the forefront of the war against the Google Gevil tyrant. So please, feel free to have a look around at the fresh design, subscribe to the RSS Feed, or have the posts delivered to you via email, and rest easy, knowing that the fight will go on.

Other coverage:
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/06/google-to-charge-15-for-first-search-query-checked.html

I realize I’ve not kept up with this blog as well as I should, but the good news is, there are more and more stories revealing the truth about Google every single day. I think we are now past the tipping point and it’s only a matter of time before the facade comes crumbling down around that colorful innocent looking logo.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass along the most recent coverage of Google. Privacy International, a privacy watchdog group ranked Google dead last in their most recent study. While I hardly find that shocking, here’s an excerpt of their report.

In summary, Google’s specific privacy failures include, but are by no means limited to:

* Google account holders that regularly use even a few of Google’s services must accept that the company retains a large quantity of information about that user, often for an unstated or indefinite length of time, without clear limitation on subsequent use or disclosure, and without an opportunity to delete or withdraw personal data even if the user wishes to terminate the service.
* Google maintains records of all search strings and the associated IP-addresses and time stamps for at least 18 to 24 months and does not provide users with an expungement option. While it is true that many US based companies have not yet established a time frame for retention, there is a prevailing view amongst privacy experts that 18 to 24 months is unacceptable, and possibly unlawful in many parts of the world.
* Google has access to additional personal information, including hobbies, employment, address, and phone number, contained within user profiles in Orkut. Google often maintains these records even after a user has deleted his profile or removed information from Orkut.
* Google collects all search results entered through Google Toolbar and identifies all Google Toolbar users with a unique cookie that allows Google to track the user’s web movement.17 Google does not indicate how long the information collected through Google Toolbar is retained, nor does it offer users a data expungement option in connection with the service.
* Google fails to follow generally accepted privacy practices such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines and elements of EU data protection law. As detailed in the EPIC complaint, Google also fails to adopted additional privacy provisions with respect to specific Google services.
* Google logs search queries in a manner that makes them personally identifiable but fails to provide users with the ability to edit or otherwise expunge records of their previous searches.
* Google fails to give users access to log information generated through their interaction with Google Maps, Google Video, Google Talk, Google Reader, Blogger and other services.

As expected Google’s responded with their typical FUD tactics, generating a smear campaign against the organization. But of course, being readers of this site, I’m sure you can figure out the truth for yourself.

When you own an anti-Google site and Google makes a few very large and very evil moves, you can’t exactly sit back and NOT mention it. Even if you are busy working on your house among several other projects. So, here I am. Better late than never right? Anyway…

Unless you’ve had your head in the sand (or perhaps up Google’s collective hind-parts), you’ve surely realized Matt Butts’ Cutts’ recent posts on paid links were basically a declaration of war on paid links. Either you tell Google to devalue said links or else… Or else what we haven’t been told but Google (via Butts) has made it clear that they are taking large strides towards combating the practice of buying and selling links without use of the nofollow tag (which of course was just SUPPOSED to combat blog spam). While much has been written about this topic, by people far more intelligent and informed than I, I’d like to sum up Google’s motives.

First, they can’t identify paid links on their own. They’ve got untold numbers of well educated engineers and yet they haven’t been able to reliably distinguish paid links from real links. Unfortunately, they also know that thousands of webmasters hang on their every word and with just a few quick blog posts, they’ve stirred up enough fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to get them no doubt tens of thousands of “spam” reports on paid links. Sure lots of innocent sites will no doubt be reported and possibly suffer from Google’s efforts to algorithmically identify paid links, and sure the people spending the most buying their way to the top of Google’s SERPs will continue to go unnoticed, but what do they care? Thanks to the brown-nosing Cuttlets that mindlessly do whatever their told, Google will have enough paid link reports to keep their engineers busy for the next 5 years.

Second, they are trying to make it impossible for sites to buy rankings unless of course… and stay with me cause this is the big one… they buy them from Google. You see, in actuality, Google has no problem with people buying their way to the top of their rankings. In fact, they make it really easy to do so. The catch is, Google forces you to pay a king’s ransom. Despite the constant stream of BS that flows from Google’s mouth pieces, they don’t actually care about delivering the most relevant results and they could care less about the users’ experience. You see, if they REALLY cared about those things, they wouldn’t place paid listings (ads) on top of their organic (unpaid) search result pages (SERPs). If they REALLY cared about relevancy, they wouldn’t simply charge advertisers more for terms they have a poor quality score for. They wouldn’t allow such ads to be placed. Of course, they DON’T really care about relevancy or their users. After dismissing Gevil’s er sorry (I’ve really got to get this keyboard looked at) Google’s reasons you’re left with the simple fact that Google is trying to force more advertisers and webmasters to use their AdWords/AdSense systems.

That’s it, plain and simple. There’s no higher calling and Google’s not striving to improve anything other than their bottom line. Google is once again F’ing* over webmasters under the guise of relevancy and improved usability. In the end, the only “search” Google has mastered is the search for the almighty dollar.

*FUDding of course… get your mind out of the gutter…

As if Google didn’t have enough problems, their newest billion dollar acquisition has been taking fire like it’s in the “Green Zone.” First, the media giant, Viacom, forced YouTube to pull hundreds of thousands of videos that were allegedly infringing upon their copyrights. Then, details emerged that proved YouTube ended up throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water by taking down an unknown number of legitimate videos along with the copyrighted clips. But hey, that’s no big deal right? I mean Google’s never had a problem participating in a bit of censorship in the past, right?

In the spirit of piling on, NBC took their turn kicking Google/YouTube while they’re down. Chief executive Jeff Zuker blasted the search-owned video-site saying “YouTube needs to prove that it will implement its filtering technology across its online platform. It’s proven it can do it when it wants to. They have the capability. The question is whether they have the will.”

While I’m not saying that YouTube will be “Napsterized”, it’s certainly going to be interesting to watch what happens in the coming months and you can be sure Gevil.org will keep you up to date on it all.