With Google bracing for the possibility of a court-mandated breakup after being ruled a monopoly, WalletHub has released a new report claiming that Google’s declining search quality is the result of an intentional strategy designed to boost ad revenue.
It’s also hurting consumers in the process, says the website, which provides provides free credit scores and reports, financial product comparisons, and budgeting tools. Here are some highlights from WalletHub’s report:
- People are noticing quality go downhill. 63% of people think that Google search results were better in a previous year, according to a nationally representative survey conducted by WalletHub.
- Trusting Google’s top results can cost you. Following the recommendations from the top 5 results for credit card and banking terms will cost you $202 on average.
- International results are invading: Websites with information intended for people in the UK, Canada and India routinely show up in U.S. search results for finance queries.
- Monopolies like Google do not have to worry about quality. According to court documents, Google’s internal testing showed that significantly worse search results would not hurt the business.
- Poor quality is good for business. The worse the organic search results are, the more useful the ads become. Plus, the more people have to refine their queries to get to what they need, the more ads they see.
- Deteriorating quality started after Google’s CEO tapped the head of Ads to lead both Search & Ads. Google always had a Church/State separation between their ad business and their organic search. In June 2020, Sundar Pichai decided to change that and align the two initiatives for maximum profit.
