They’re Owned By Google!

Despite (or perhaps because) of their stunning success in online business over the past five years or so, Google are not always everybody’s favorite company, for a wide variety of reasons.

There are some that dislike them because they are so successful.

There are others who find that Google do sometimes seem to adopt a very high handed, ‘we’re Google and so you must bow down’ kind of attitude that really makes these folks feel like they never want to deal with them.

To others, they are the ultimate faceless business behemoth answerable to no-one but themselves.

And then there is the secrecy!

Of course, everyone understands that there are parts of both the AdWords and AdSense business models that Google cannot and will not tell anyone, and that plainly makes sense.

But the levels of secrecy that Google adopt are so extreme that it would be funny were it not so darned annoying!

For example, you know that, as an AdSense publisher, when someone clicks an ad on your site you will get paid for it.

How much you will get paid or how this figure is calculated is however, a massive secret and Google have never, ever told anyone how the numbers are calculated!

Now, that just does not make sense, and makes many site owners very unhappy about using AdSense. Imagine going to work everyday and knowing that you would get paid for your day’s labor, but having a boss who will not tell you how much!

There is, in other words, absolutely no transparency at Google nor, it seems, is there ever likely to be so without a very radical shake-up.

And for many online entrepreneurs and internet marketers (people who generally rely on business transparency to survive) this apparently superior attitude (some might say arrogance) that Google demonstrates is simply unacceptable.

The fact that Google genuinely do not see this as any kind of problem at all will possibly be one of the biggest single contributors to the fall from grace that AdSense could very well suffer in the next few years.

So, what does all of this tell you?

What it tells you is that text and contextual advertising does have a future, but probably not the way that Google is doing it now.

It tells you that you must start looking at all the options beyond Google and their AdSense program sooner rather than later.