Critics of Google are beginning to come out of the shadows, emboldened by the possibility that authorities and the public are ready to bring Silicon Valley’s biggest players down a notch.
Tech startups have long grumbled about how much of their budgets they burn on ads to acquire customers. Especially in Silicon Valley, where the focus is often on growing quickly, new companies sometimes spend big on internet ads, which typically means ads on Google and Facebook.In an interview, Fried said he felt comfortable speaking out for several reasons. His company has only three owners, so there aren’t venture capitalists around to push faster growth or try to try maintain ties to Google.
Google said in an email that it tried to strike a balance in its policy. “Like other search engines, we allow competitors to bid on trademarked terms because it offers users more choice when they are searching. However, if a trademark owner files a complaint, we will block competitors from using their business name in the actual ad text,” the company said.
Yelp, the local business search service that for years has complained about Google’s business practices, has focused its criticism on how Google has changed over the years: Rather than directing users to the web’s wide variety of independent sites, Google provides more information directly — everything from business hours to health information to word definitions — on its own pages, keeping eyeballs on Google ads.
For Google, watching customers complain openly about their ad spending may be damaging on its own, said Josh Pigford, founder of Baremetrics, an eight-person software company. He said his company stopped spending on Google ads after deciding it was unsustainable “ransom.”
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