drifting blog by snotch

イメージ検索、アドワーズ広告などで最近ますますGoogle の勢いが増してます。Web検索においては支配的な地位を獲得したといっても良いのではないでしょうか。「可能な限り多くのサイトに対して公正なアクセスを維持する責務を負っているので、Googleを”準・公的機関”として取り締まるべきだ」と言う人もいる。
何か調べものがあるときに、まずGoogleで検索をします。しかし、僕は億劫な人間なので、いつの間にかGoogle以外で検索をしない習慣がついてしまった。この記事を読んで反省しました。Google 以外の価値あるオンライン情報源にも目を向け、探す努力をしなくては。

Stefanie Olsen

Is Google power a threat to the Web?

Patrick Ahern has witnessed the power of Google--and the difficulties of trying to do business without it.

Data Recovery Group, where he is president, would typically come up around the fourth listing on Google's popular search engine last year. Then in January, when Google removed the company from its listings without explanation, Data Recovery saw a 30 percent drop in business.

"When you're No. 4 that plays well; when you fall off, you tend to lose phone traffic. And if you don't have the right relationship with Google to find out what you could have done wrong, you're out of luck," Ahern said, noting that this can have a dangerous domino effect. "If you're not ranked in Google, Yahoo won't list you. It's incestuous."

In the dot-com shakeout, Google has not only survived but reigns supreme. Web surfers have flocked to the service, effectively voting it the best search engine around. So powerful has Google become that many companies view it as the Web itself: If you're not listed on its indexes, they say, you might as well not exist. And if you don't advertise on Google or otherwise curry favor, critics add, you may never find out what it takes to get a prominent listing.

Pragmatists in the industry even say its dominance in Web search gives Google a new responsibility to maintain fair access to as many sites as possible, leading some to suggest that it be regulated as a quasi-public agency. Last week, for example, an Oklahoma marketing firm filed suit against Google in federal court charging that Google unfairly began listing the company lower in search results.