Do I Hate Google?

google-hatin

Given my track record some people might wonder: do I hate Google?

It’s understandable, after all I write things like

etc. all the time it seems. It’s true. I’m critical of Google.

Yet do I really literally hate Google?


Does Criticism Equal Hate?

One day I had a strange debate with one of the most renowned experts on Google search.

Later on this same person wrote a book called “The Sniper’s Mindset” advocating using sneaky killing techniques from the military for marketing.

I won’t go into details but he got angry with me for writing “black hat link building techniques you can learn from Google“.

His line of thought was in short “Tad is so anti-Google that he is too biased to make sense at all.”

Did I get a bad rep for being too outspoken on a corporation everybody still seems to love?

That’s possible. I also noticed that I don’t get featured in more moderate or downright pro-Google publications anymore.

You know, I mean the likes of Search Engine Land. Update: by 2022 I became a regular writer for SEL for half year.

That can have other reasons as well, my articles here on seo2.blog tend be a bit quick and dirty due to my workload writing for all the other search blogs.

You have to be friends with Google to be an accepted authority in the search industry for obvious reasons. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.


Cuddling with Google is for Big Publishers Only

Major publications have something to lose. They have to be friendly to Google to get the inside scoop.

They want to be able to get the latest news directly from John Mueller and other people from the Google team. Thus they can not afford to be too critical of Google like I am.

First off: I still use Google tools and services. It’s obvious. I have to use Google to improve client websites and make them more findable.

Indeed it’s almost the only search engine there is!

Other search engines are marginal by usage compared to the market dominating Google. I also use plenty of other Google services.

I don’t rely on them anymore but I use them as nice to have, after all they are free (as in free beer)

Thus in case they don’t do more harm than good I still use them.

For a few years I even banned Google search on my blog here.

Indeed Google did more harm than good so I removed access for Google bots here. I have explained that in-depth in the past.

I won’t explain it again what the reasons were and still are. I also have mentioned that I give each Google service a new chance.


You Have to Know What you Criticize

Thus it’s not hypocritical of me to criticize Google and use Google tools at the same time.

Indeed it makes me able to criticize them at all because I know what I’m talking about.

I also optimize client sites for Google so I still can share my expertise of Google SEO despite not using Google search privately. There is more to it.

When I first wrote this Google just turned 15 so it basically was a disgruntled teenager.

I rarely speak about family because I consider it a private matter.

Also I don’t like to flaunt their images on Facebook but I have a wife and what a coincidence had a teenage daughter.

My daughter sometimes said the same things a hypothetical Google teen could tell me:

  • You are always criticizing me!
  • Everything I do I do wrong!
  • I can never make you happy.

Do I hate my daughter too? Am I the misanthrope some of you might expect already? No, of course not.

There are many reasons to criticize a teenage daughter you may imagine and in the case of Google there are a lot too.

I won’t repeat every time that she or Google does everything else right, except the things I criticize.

Of course a humongous entity like Google can do much more harm than my teenage daughter!

That’s why I broadcast my criticism of Google to the whole world while I only criticize my daughter in private. The situation is very similar though.


Staying Positive While Being Critical

When my daughter was younger me and my wife took part in a so called Triple P course. It’s the abbreviation for Positive Parenting Program.

The basic premise of this scientifically proven system is that most parenting (and indeed the whole society) is wrong simply because it’s based on negativity:

  • criticism
  • penalties
  • anger.

Triple P in contrast is parenting by rewards.

You obsess about the positive things so that kids notice when they do something right and not the other way around.

Within a few weeks we achieved literately stellar results with our daughter. From several daily tantrums we moved to weekly and later monthly ones.

It wasn’t that our daughter was a bad kid, it was just that we sucked at parenting until then. It’s not always easy to abide by the Triple-P system.

When you’re tired, stressed out or frustrated for some reason (and I am lot, after all I stare at a screen all day) you tend to get overtly critical.

So today is the “Google didn’t want to kill me” day.

I will treat Google more like a teenager from now on.

I’m not even angry anymore that Google stole my Adsense money.

It was just around 100$ anyway so I won’t hate Google for that either.

I also like to apologize for calling Google a “corporate criminal” in the past. Even though it was true.

I went a bit overboard with that. I mean it’s true but still offensive.

Yet that’s just a small part of “the Google”. It’s not like their main business model, is it?


Google is Not Just a Corporation – it’s Made by People

I also know that there is no Google, there are tens of thousands of hard working people there.

They do not mean to cause harm. After all there are also much uglier corporations out there, think

  • ExxonMobil
  • Monsanto
  • Nike.

Google for one has never polluted the environment at large scale, speculated on hunger in poorer nations or exploited slave labor.

I’m not a raging maniac who is hating Google.

In case you work at Google I bear no grudge against you.

You have most likely nothing to do with the person responsible for

  • my Adsense money theft
  • the half billion dollar illegal drug scheme
  • driving website owners into desperation.
  • profiling users and giving others access to those profiles.

You are just trying to do your job. Remember though that you can’t blame “the Google” for everything either.

You are responsible to some extent so in case you want to sleep well for the rest of your life you should rather listen to what I say.

Then Google might grow up to become a responsible corporation. Right now it’s on the way to corporate tyranny and it’s not difficult to extrapolate that future.

Just listen to your own corporate doublespeak and compare it to Orwell’s in his 1984 novel. I strongly suggest to read it in case you haven’t yet.