In yet another US-Centric move the world leader in search engines and search marketing offers a US-only initiative for small business. If I lived in the US, I’d be tolerably happy with this. Small businesses account for a large fraction of economic activity, and are often hard hit in a recession.
However, the UK has substantially converted a large fraction of its’ advertising to online. And a large fraction of that goes to Google, with Google typically taking a larger share of searches in the UK than in the USA. Why is the UK not so important for Google? Because th Googleplex is in the US. Although Gogle thinks of itself as organising the worlds data - it’s really just another US company, with domestic interests that dwarf any overseas impact.
Google - start behaving like a global citizen. Your policies and programs affect economies *outside* the USA. Take your Ten Things and use them globally. Or you’ll start to see people looking at their national interests and building resistance to your products.
Brian wrote,
The Small Business Network appears to be a political lobbying program. The first major effort, according to the link:
“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama in February, sets aside $7 billion to increase access to high-speed Internet or broadband for the 20 million Americans who live in underserved areas. By expanding broadband access and preserving an open platform, small businesses in America have the ability to reach all consumers at an affordable cost and compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world. We hope that the Small Business Network will encourage lawmakers to grant those funds to the right providers and create broadband access for all small businesses across the country.”
It wouldn’t do any good to lobby the U.K. Parliament for these funds. Political lobbying is fairly nation-specific.
Admittedly, Google *could* also create a parallel UK lobbying effort (I think — do you chaps allow that sort of thing?). But it almost certainly would have to be a substantially separate program, with a U.K. staff and strategies focused on the way U.K. politics works. The U.S. Congress is a uniquely corrupt institution — not unique in that it *is* corrupt, just unique in the particular way one has to navigate the corruption.
Your criticisms of Google are often spot-on. But I think it’s a bit of a stretch to criticize Google for starting a small-business political program like this with a U.S. focus, especially given that it seems partly motivated by Obama’s recent stimulus package.
Also, FYI, “small business” is a code word in U.S. politics. When Republicans say it, it really means “wealthy people who make their money from investments” — Repubs are almost always talking about lowering taxes (”capital gains taxes”) on the passive investment income of millionaires. When Democrats say it, they actually mean entrepreneurs with new, family, local or otherwise “small” businesses. Google seems to have recognized that for the first time in a long time, when Washington speaks about “small business,” they actually *do* mean Google’s customers now.
Link | April 29th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Jeremy Chatfield wrote,
Ah ha. So this is part of the political effort by Google to stop ISP’s from charging businesses for end-user bandwidth consumption…
Yes, we do have lobbies here. They work in substantially similar manner. Unknown groups with anonymous frontmen hobnobbing with lawmakers in search of specific advantages for special interests. Part of what makes tax law so very exciting.
I can’t imagine Google finding any interest in non-US efforts, since the bandwidth argument seems to be a largely self-inflicted wound in the USA?
Oh well, thanks for your really helpful commentary. Makes the article more useful, at least!
And I thought this was really about Small Businesses and the recession. Sometimes I feel so naive and insufficiently cynical. :(
Link | April 29th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Anil Kumar wrote,
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Link | October 26th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Jeremy Chatfield wrote,
Hi Anil. - my response is not positive. I may write an article about why, at some point…
Link | October 29th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Star wrote,
I am an owner of a small business that sells cosmetics and without affordable advertising through such tools as Google, I would go unnoticed on the internet. Savvy business has allowed me to advertise using Internet Marketing and SEO/Links . I have seen a dramatic increase since I started this route and soon my business will be able to expand.
[[Edited to change the link to a specific advertiser on the affiliate marketplace in the nofollowed link given; I suspect that the poster is pretending to sell cosmetics, but is in fact drumming up business through false claims. Something that annoys me. JeremyC]]
Link | November 10th, 2009 at 7:08 am