Franck DebaneDigital Evolution

Google also building walls around its garden…

By 1 min read Opinion

Have a look a the image below. It compares two screenshots of a Google search results page. The one on the left is from 2008. The one on the right is from 2012. Source: Business Insider

Google results pages in 2008 and 2012, with Google’s own content in red and other sites in green

This is not new of course, but recently the spotlight started to shift toward this issue. The Google page result is more and more just about Google content and ads, leaving little space for organic free traffic for web sites.

As the article says: the company is closely monitored by anti-trust officials.

In that trend earlier this year, the search results page integrated Google+

So Google wants users to stay on Google, building walls to prevent them to wander outside – unless an advertiser pays Google for that user. This will certainly increase their revenues but it’s also a shift toward a less open and a more controlled internet – by Google.

Franck Debane helps large companies build new ventures with Forward Partners: about a hundred programmes in more than 50 companies since 2012. He wrote Passez en mode startup (Eyrolles, 2021) and organises the Lead Innovation Day.