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Criticism of Google

Criticism of Google includes concern for tax avoidance, misuse and manipulation of search results, its use of others' intellectual property, concerns that its compilation of data may violate people's privacy and collaboration with the US military on Google Earth to spy on users,[1] censorship of search results and content, and the energy consumption of its servers as well as concerns over traditional business issues such as monopoly, restraint of trade, antitrust, patent infringement, indexing and presenting false information and propaganda in search results, and being an "Ideological Echo Chamber".

Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products,[2] and generates profit primarily from advertising through its Google Ads (formerly AdWords) program.[3][4]


Google's stated mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful";[5] this mission, and the means used to accomplish it, have raised concerns among the company's critics. Much of the criticism pertains to issues that have not yet been addressed by cyber law.


Shona Ghosh, a journalist for Business Insider, noted that an increasing digital resistance movement against Google has grown.[6]

Complaint that Google abused its position as a dominant search engine to favor its own services over those of competitors. In particular, Google operated a free Froogle, which it abandoned in favor of a paid-placement-only site called Google Shopping. Other comparison sites complained of a precipitous drop in web traffic due to changes in the Google search algorithm, and some were driven out of business.[30] The investigation began in 2010 and concluded in July 2017 with a €2.42 billion fine against the parent company Alphabet, and an order to change its practices within 90 days.[29]

comparison shopping website

Complaint opened in 2015 that the dominance of the was abused to make it difficult for competing third-party apps and search engines to be pre-installed on mobile phones. (See European Union vs. Google.)[31]

Android operating system

Complaint opened in 2016 that Google abused its market dominance to prevent competing advertising companies to sell ads to websites already using [32]

Google AdSense

In June 2023, the EU accused Google of abusing its control of the EU market for buying and selling online advertising to undercut rivals.

[33]

Criticism of search engine[edit]

Possible misuse of search results[edit]

In 2006/2007, a group of Austrian researchers observed a tendency to misuse the Google engine as a "reality interface". Ordinary users as well as journalists tend to rely on the first pages of Google Search, assuming that everything not listed there is either not important or simply does not exist. The researchers say that "Google has become the main interface for our whole reality. To be precise: with the Google interface, the user gets the impression that the search results imply a kind of totality. In fact, one only sees a small part of what one could see if one also integrates other research tools".[54]

Criticisms of software and websites

DeGoogle

Don't be evil

Filter bubble

Google litigation

Google Search

Googlization

High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation

History of Google

Ireland as a tax haven

Stochastic parrot

Surveillance capitalism

The Creepy Line

Who Owns the Future?

Yeo, ShinJoung. (2023) Behind the Search Box: Google and the Global Internet Industry (U of Illinois Press, 2023) ISBN 10:0252087127

online

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, April 2, 2004

"Google's Email Service 'Gmail' Sacrifices Privacy for Extra Storage Space"

Lisa Vaas, eWeek.com, June 12, 2007

"Privacy Group Flunks Google"

The Economist, August 30, 2007

"Who's afraid of Google?"

(Archived 2011)

Google Watch