For some time people who work in the internet and web design industry have heard about unfair, exploitative and ‘cowboy’ tactics when it comes to search engine positioning.  Everyone tries to get the edge and everyone tries to rank well.  But time and again we in the industry notice unfair practice that companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter seem to turn a blind eye to or worse promote for their own ends.

As with almost every occupation those inside know more than those outside, the web isn’t any different.  Stories filter out from the cyberworld but many never listen or care as long as they’re getting what they want, now it seems what with trolls, tax avoidance, to name but two the popular media is starting to listen to the smaller voices.  Channel 4 Dispatches on Monday (05/08/2013) will lift the lid on just some of the corruption and exploitation behind the giants of the internet.

Dispatches exposes the new tricks used by marketeers to plug brands, from buying fake Facebook ‘likes’ and YouTube ‘views’ to influencing social media conversations.  Film-maker Chris Atkins travels to Bangladesh in search of backstreet ‘click farms’ where poorly paid workers manipulate social media for the benefit of big western brands.Source – https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihewn6gTSeU

“There’s a real desire amongst many companies to boost their profile on social media, and find other customers as well as a result,” said Graham Cluley, an independent security consultant.
Source – https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/02/click-farms-appearance-online-popularity

The crazy thing is this is just the tip of the iceberg .. many UK companies buy White Label SEO packages from overseas.  Often these SEO companies exploit people to create fake likes, follow websites, develop fake content, and exploit any loop hole in search engines to get top spot.  It isn’t a fair fight it’s simply a case of those who have the most money to exploit and cheat the system win – and companies such as Google allow it to happen.

What with trolls, tracking and the scary privacy issues will the tide slowly turn against the so called “Do No Evil” monolyths or we will the majority simply carry on blindly towards an abyss of the scary world of Big Brother?

On a final note – ask yourself irrespective of how much data holds, how reliant are we on ‘FREE’ services such as Google?  And what control do they have over us – in truth they almost can hand us up and stop most of our lives.  If you are interested take a look at Dumped-by-google

I realized how dependent I had become. I couldn’t finish my work or my taxes, because my notes and expenses were stored in Google Drive, and I didn’t know what else I should work on because my Google calendar had disappeared. I couldn’t publicly gripe about what I was going through, because my Blogger no longer existed. My Picasa albums were gone. I’d lost my contacts and calling plan through Google Voice; otherwise I would have called friends to cry.
https://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/04/22/dumped-by-google/

Scared yet?  Worse still … Google assumes no responsibility over user data!  Google limits its total liability for stolen data, lost data, anything, “TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US TO USE THE SERVICES”  … if it’s free then you get nothing back!

In terms of how Google control what we read and how they filter content … try using Duck Duck Go and notice the difference.