I have long understood that Google is highly manipulative in the way it builds it's search results listings. The results are absolutely NOT a fair listing of the state of the internet and absolutely ARE a highly controlled, filtered and censored view of the internet. In short, reliance on Google for your view of the web is like relying on a politician for your view of the truth of life in general - ill advised.
When I first launched my own social network it had another name and wasn't actually at that point technically a social network. I saw that the results it achieved in Google appeared to reflect my expectations based on what I understood Google to be doing when calculating the ranks of each page/site on the web. Once I changed the name, converted it to a social network and began posting controversial material (only controversial because it exposes the web of lies that underpins much of our education, political and corporate world) I very quickly found my site 'ureka.org' disappeared from Google completely (for years).
I could search for ureka and maybe you would see ureka.org in the results but if I searched for anything else at all that related to my site, it would be nowhere to be seen. This is not how my site performed previously and so it was clear to me that I was being blocked by Google. Not only this but I found that my comments on Youtube were being blocked by Google, so that no-one else could read them and even I was unaware this was occurring until I ran tests by trying to view my comments via the anonymous browser 'Tor' - where I found that my comments were nowhere to be seen. It was clear that someone at Google had decided that my activity online needed to be squashed. You can read more on this in a post I made to Steemit a while ago, here.
Today I learned that the EU issued a 2.1 Billion Euro fine to Google for exactly this kind of behavior and it escalated to a class action law suit. I may actually look into joining this if I can. The Daily Mail reports that Google blacklisted a competitor to their own shopping service that was run by a couple in Britain called 'Foundem'. Much like in my case, their site could not be found in any relevant searches in Google and the EU Commission has ruled that Google violated Anti-Trust laws. The fine is the largest ever handed out for this kind of violation.
In my case, this nearly meant years of my life were wasted, however, thankfully, I am now able to recover some of it through using Steemit to spread my own work and also to advertise Ureka too. It's not impossible I will see some justice yet from Google - but I won't be holding my breath!
Removing Google From Steemit
I posted a while ago about removing Google Search from Steemit not just because of their bad behavior, but also because of the privacy implications that run counter to the ethos of Steemit and many Steemians. It would be great if Steemit Inc. would reconsider their use of this criminal organisation.
Wishing you well,
Ura Soul
View My Witness Application Here
