[bgw]

It has always been strange for me to understand Google search as a monopoly. First, there are competitors. Second, it's free (yes, I know you pay with data). Third, you can use the internet without using any of Google's services (except adsense, I suppose). How is Google's search a monopoly when it's the user who is deciding they prefer it to Bing or Duck Duck Go or Yahoo? Perhaps my understanding of monopoly is incomplete because this makes no sense to me.

[pixl97]

If I produce content that I want other people to view, I have to cater it to googles requirements or almost nobody sees it. Simply put Google is the biggest driver of traffic and ad dollars.

If you play by (or if you game) Googles rules you can make piles of cash, driven by the traffic they send your way. Then the next day it can dry up with no reason given.

Saying that the user prefers it is a slightly backward way of thinking about it. Does the user prefer it because it is better, or is it because abuse of their monopoly doesn't allow other providers to achieve the same quality of service?

[scarface74]

If I produce content that I want other people to view, I have to cater it to googles requirements or almost nobody sees it. Simply put Google is the biggest driver of traffic and ad dollars.

I know of a few bloggers who don't seem to be dependent on Google or Facebook to maintain their business.

1. John Gruber (daringireball.com). He made a name for himself over 15 years and is famous enough to be on the shortlist of people that Apple always reaches out to when they want to do a four or five person press event. He routinely gets VPs from Apple on his podcast.

He sells RSS sponsorships - one at the beginning of the week and one at the end of the week. He also makes money from his podcast.

He did lose half his readership after Google killed off Google Reader, but he said since he never sold his ads based on the number of readers, it hasn't hurt his business too badly.

2. Ben Thompson (stratechery.com). He posts once a week to his blog, became popular and has over 2000 subscribers to his newsletter that he charges $100/a year for. He has one advertiser for his podcast - mailchimp - they sponsored him for an entire year.

3. Marco Arment - first architect of Tumblr, creator of Instapaper, and now Overcast. He is also a decently well known blogger in the Apple ecosystem. He basically created his own podcast app ad sales platform, and has a popular podcast.

4. Horace Deidu. He started out as a blogger/analyst and now he gives speeches and does workshops worldwide.

It's hard getting noticed over the noise, but it can be done. It is possible to create a viable content business without an over reliance on Google.

[paulddraper]

But it's only that way because each internet user has decided to prefer that search engine.

It's different than, say, Facebook.

[PaulHoule]

The argument here is not that it is directly bad for consumers but that Google is bad for producers, and that in the long run, consumers will suffer from less quality content.