Ecommerce Management Advisors
Ecommerce Management Advisors
Google Analytics 4 introduces segment sharing, improving data consistency. New features include a shared library and expanded user permissions.
Google has announced that Prabhakar Raghavan, the executive overseeing the company’s search engine and advertising products, will be stepping down from his current role.
The news came on Thursday in a memo from CEO Sundar Pichai to staff.
Taking over Raghavan’s responsibilities will be Nick Fox, a longtime Google executive with experience across various departments.
Fox will now lead the Knowledge & Information team, which includes Google’s Search, Ads, Geo, and Commerce products.
Pichai expressed confidence in Fox’s ability to lead these crucial divisions, noting:
“Throughout his career, Nick has demonstrated leadership across nearly every facet of Knowledge & Information, from Product and Design in Search and Assistant, to our Shopping, Travel, and Payments products.”
Raghavan will transition to the newly created position of Chief Technologist.
He will work closely with Pichai and other Google leaders in this role to provide technical direction.
Pichai praised Raghavan’s contributions, stating:
“Prabhakar’s leadership journey at Google has been remarkable, spanning Research, Workspace, Ads, and Knowledge & Information. He led the Gmail team in launching Smart Reply and Smart Compose as early examples of using AI to improve products, and took Gmail and Drive past 1 billion users.”
This recent announcement from Google comes in the wake of earlier criticisms leveled at the company’s search division.
In April, an opinion piece from Ed Zitron highlighted concerns about the direction of Google Search under Raghavan’s leadership.
The article cited industry analysts who claimed that Raghavan’s background in advertising, rather than search technology, had led to decisions prioritizing revenue over search quality.
Critics alleged that under Raghavan’s tenure, Google had rolled back key quality improvements to boost engagement metrics and ad revenue.
Internal emails from 2019 were referenced. They described a “Code Yellow” emergency response to lagging search revenues when Raghavan was head of Ads. This reportedly resulted in boosting sites previously downranked for using spam tactics.
Google has disputed many of these claims, maintaining that its advertising systems do not influence organic search results.
As part of Google’s restructuring:
Fox’s takeover from Raghavan could shake things up at Google.
We may see faster AI rollouts in search and ads, plus more frequent updates. Fox might revisit core search quality, addressing recent criticisms.
Fox might push for quicker adoption of new tech to fend off competitors, especially in AI. He’s also likely to be more savvy about regulatory issues.
It’s important to note that these potential changes are speculative based on the limited information available.
The actual changes in leadership style and priorities will become clearer as Fox settles into his new role.
Featured Image: One Artist/Shutterstock
In a recent discussion on Reddit’s r/SEO forum, Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, cautioned against relying too heavily on third-party SEO metrics.
His comments came in response to a person’s concerns about dramatic changes in tool measurements and their perceived impact on search performance.
The conversation was sparked by a website owner who reported the following series of events:
The owner, who claimed never to have purchased links, is concerned about the impact of these spammy links on their site’s performance.
Mueller addressed these concerns by highlighting the limitations of third-party SEO tools and their metrics.
He stated:
“Many SEO tools have their own metrics that are tempting to optimize for (because you see a number), but ultimately, there’s no shortcut.”
He cautioned against implementing quick fixes based on these metrics, describing many of these tactics as “smoke & mirrors.”
Mueller highlighted a crucial point: the metrics provided by SEO tools don’t directly correlate with how search engines evaluate websites.
He noted that actions like using disavow files don’t affect metrics from SEO tools, as these companies don’t have access to Google data.
This highlights the need to understand the sources and limitations of SEO tool data. Their metrics aren’t direct indicators of search engine rankings.
Mueller suggested a holistic SEO approach, prioritizing unique value over specific metrics like Domain Authority or spam scores.
He advised:
“If you want to think about the long term, finding ways to add real value that’s unique and wanted by people on the web (together with all the usual SEO best practices as a foundation) is a good target.”
However, Mueller acknowledged that creating unique content isn’t easy, adding:
“Unique doesn’t mean a unique combination of words, but really something that nobody else is providing, and ideally, that others can’t easily provide themselves.
It’s hard, it takes a lot of work, and it can take a lot of time. If it were fast & easy, others would be – and probably are already – doing it and have more practice at it.”
Mueller’s insights encourage us to focus on what really matters: strategies that put users first.
This helps align content with Google’s goals and create lasting benefits.
Featured Image: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
Microsoft upgrades Bing Webmaster Tools with extended data access, new recommendations system, and AI assistant in limited testing phase.
YouTube is rolling out an update with changes across desktop, mobile, TV, and YouTube Music.
The update brings visual changes to YouTube’s interface across all platforms.
These changes may improve readability and navigation, particularly on mobile devices.
YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, Johanna Voolich, stated in an interview:
“On the mobile app we’re doing things like updating the colors to be consistent with the YouTube brand and we’re also making the landscape experience a lot cleaner bigger thumbnails bigger font.”
You can now resize and move the miniplayer within the YouTube mobile app.
Additionally, you now have more control over playback speed.
Voolich explained,
“We have variable playback speed but now you can do it at the smallest finest grain increments for people who want to have a lot of control.”
YouTube is introducing collaborative playlists, allowing multiple people to contribute to shared playlists.
Describing a potential use case, Voolich said,
“A really good use case might be I’m having a party I want to invite my friends over I want to watch some comedy together I put on my favorite comedy videos and then I ask them and they could just add theirs to it we can pop it on the TV and sit and watch together.”
This feature will be accessible via a special link or QR code on TV platforms.
A new Sleep Timer feature allows you to set a duration, after which videos will automatically pause.
This may be useful for people who often fall asleep while watching content.
YouTube is implementing a badge system to acknowledge user engagement.
Voolich described this feature as:
“… ways to recognize the community and the super fans and the people for using YouTube and the milestones that they’ve created within the YouTube community.”
For people who watch on their TV, YouTube is launching immersive channel pages.
Now, a video will automatically play when visiting a creator’s channel on a connected TV
This change could potentially impact how viewers discover and engage with content on larger screens.
While many features are available now, some, like playlist voting, are scheduled for release later in the year.
With these changes, YouTube is showing its commitment to improving the platform based on user needs and preferences.
Voolich said, “These are the features that people ask for the most and what the people want.”
She encouraged continued feedback, adding, “Keep those requests coming.”
Featured Image: Screenshot from blog.youtube.com, October 2024.
Google’s Web Performance Developer Advocate, Barry Pollard, has clarified how Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is measured.
CLS quantifies how much unexpected layout shift occurs when a person browses your site.
This metric matters to SEO as it’s one of Google’s Core Web Vitals. Pages with low CLS scores provide a more stable experience, potentially leading to better search visibility.
How is it measured? Pollard addressed this question in a thread on X.
For Core Web Vitals what is CLS measured in? Why is 0.1 considered not good and 0.25 bad, and what do those numbers represent?
I’ve had 3 separate conversations on this with various people in last 24 hours so figured it’s time for another deep dive thread to explain…
🧵 1/12 pic.twitter.com/zZoTur6Ad4
— Barry Pollard (@tunetheweb) October 10, 2024
Pollard began by explaining the nature of CLS measurement:
“CLS is ‘unitless’ unlike LCP and INP which are measured in seconds/milliseconds.”
He further clarified:
“Each layout shift is calculated by multipyling two percentages or fractions together: What moved (impact fraction) How much it moved (distance fraction).”
This calculation method helps quantify the severity of layout shifts.
As Pollard explained:
“The whole viewport moves all the way down – that’s worse than just half the view port moving all the way down. The whole viewport moving down a little? That’s not as bad as the whole viewport moving down a lot.”
Pollard described the worst-case scenario for a single layout shift:
“The maximum layout shift is if 100% of the viewport (impact fraction = 1.0) is moved one full viewport down (distance fraction = 1.0).
This gives a layout shift score of 1.0 and is basically the worst type of shift.”
However, he reminds us of the cumulative nature of CLS:
“CLS is Cumulative Layout Shift, and that first word (cumulative) matters. We take all the individual shifts that happen within a short space of time (max 5 seconds) and sum them up to get the CLS score.”
Pollard explained the reasoning behind the 5-second measurement window:
“Originally we cumulated ALL the shifts, but that didn’t really measure the UX—especially for pages opened for a long time (think SPAs or email). Measuring all shifts meant, given enough, time even the best pages would fail!”
He also noted the theoretical maximum CLS score:
“Since each element can only shift when a frame is drawn and we have a 5 second cap and most devices run at 60fps, that gives a theoretical cap on CLS of 5 secs * 60 fps * 1.0 max shift = 300.”
Pollard addressed how to interpret CLS scores:
“… it helps to think of CLS as a percentage of movement. The good threshold of 0.1 means about the page moved 10%—which could mean the whole page moved 10%, or half the page moved 20%, or lots of little movements were equivalent to either of those.”
Regarding the specific threshold values, Pollard explained:
“So why is 0.1 ‘good’ and 0.25 ‘poor’? That’s explained here as was a combination of what we’d want (CLS = 0!) and what is achievable … 0.05 was actually achievable at the median, but for many sites it wouldn’t be, so went slightly higher.”
See also: What is CLS and How to Optimize It?
Pollard’s insights provide web developers and SEO professionals with a clearer understanding of measuring and optimizing for CLS.
As you work with CLS, keep these points in mind:
With this insight, you can make adjustments to achieve Google’s threshold.
Featured Image: Piscine26/Shutterstock
Google’s Daniel Waisberg and Omri Weisman share three tips for improving both online and offline marketing strategies. They explain how to leverage Google Trends search data to make better decisions about products, optimize strategies, understand consumer behavior, and focus marketing efforts for a higher ROI.
Google offers three tips:
Google’s Daniel Waisberg showed that one way to research competitors is to do a head-to-head comparison of search terms for your company versus competitors by entering your company name or domain name in one panel of the Google Trends and your competitor’s in the second one. He suggests selecting a topic from the “categories” drop down menu which will allow for more specific user intent segmentation, where a user is looking for results in a specific niche or topic. Waisberg comments that it’s okay to not choose a category if one doesn’t exist.
Although he doesn’t mention it, there’s an additional way to segment users by the type of search (web search, image search, Google shopping, and YouTube search). This is an option that’s available that can help see how people are searching (images, videos, etc.) in comparison to competitors.
Google Trends shows a trend line indicating how often users are searching for both company names. The trend line shows if a company is trending up over time, if it’s experiencing a downward trajectory or if customer demand is on a steady level. Spikes can be evidence of seasonality but sharp spikes could be a sign of a marketing effort or promotion paying off.
Waisberg encourages users to scroll down to inspect search trends by subregion, metro areas and cities. While Waisberg suggests it’s a way to determine demand for opening a store, the way I use the information is for determining geographical areas where demand is higher and focus online marketing effort there to maximize ROI. This can be done for link building, PPC, email, whatever you’re method is.
Daniel Waisberg begins his explanation at the 03:11 minute mark:
“Looking at the results, you can see how well your competitor is doing in comparison to you over time. …when you scroll down, you can compare how strong you are for each of the subregions, metro areas and cities available, and these could help you gather data when deciding where to open a new store.”
Waisberg explains that Google Trends can be used to track brand awareness by filtering results over time to identify what people are saying about the brand. He recommends setting the time range for the past 30 or 90 days.
Related search terms that are rising or are top terms offer insights into how consumers are perceiving your brand, including what they’re associating the brand with. This same method can be applied to analyze YouTube search trends related to brand by selecting YouTube Search from the Categories drop down menu at the top of the Google Trends page.
Google’s Omri Weisman explains from the 4:37 minute mark:
“To monitor what people are saying about you, you should check your brand name using Google Trends… Scroll down the page to see the related search terms card. Go through both the rising and the top terms on the list and make sure to paginate using the arrows below the table. This will give you a good idea of the terms people are using in connection with your brand.”
An easy way to predict product demand with Google Trends is identify which products are searched for the most and then zero in on how demand changes with time. It’s suggested to pay attention to seasonal trends and adjust product inventory accordingly.
Waisberg explains how to do it at about the 6:44 minute mark by researching cheese. In his example he notes the seasonality but then takes the analysis another step forward by scrolling down and exploring related terms that can suggest related products with higher search demand that you may want to begin selling or reviewing.
He explains:
“If you Scroll down, you’ll find the related topics and the related queries cards. Here you can check the top topics to find ideas on what has already gathered a lot of interest and also the rising topics to get a sense on what is getting more attention lately. Don’t forget to look further through the pagination.
Notice how charcuterie appears on both lists. Add this term to your analysis. You’ll see that it has significantly more interest than cheese platters. Maybe you should consider analyzing this term further and potentially diversifying.”
Google’s Daniel Waisberg and Omri Weisman demonstrated how to use Google Trends to improve online marketing, competitor research, brand research, and better understanding customer preference and behavior. It can also be used to identify which products to focus on and at what times of year. These tips are useful for both online and offline marketing strategies.
Watch the Google Search Central video:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/MR Gao
In a big move for digital advertisers, Reddit has just introduced a new Keyword Targeting feature, changing the game for how marketers reach their target audiences.
This addition brings fresh potential for PPC marketers looking to tap into Reddit’s highly engaged user base.
With millions of communities and conversations happening every day, Reddit is now offering advertisers a more precise way to get in front of users at the perfect moment.
The best part? They’re leveraging AI to make the process even more powerful.
Let’s break down why this is such an exciting development for digital advertisers.
Reddit has always been about its vibrant communities, or “subreddits,” where users connect over shared interests and discuss a wide range of topics.
Until now, keyword targeting has only been available on conversation placements. Starting today, advertisers can use keyword targeting in both feed and conversation placements.
The targeting update allows advertisers to place ads directly within these conversations, ensuring they reach people when they’re actively engaged with content that’s related to their products or services.
For PPC marketers, this level of targeting means a higher chance of delivering ads to users who are in the right mindset.
Instead of serving ads to users scrolling passively through a general feed, Reddit is giving you the tools to place your ads into specific conversations, where users are already discussing topics related to your industry.
According to Reddit, advertisers who use keyword targeting have seen a 30% increase in conversion volumes. This is a significant lift for marketers focused on performance metrics, such as conversion rates and cost per acquisition.
While precision is key, Reddit knows that advertisers also need scale.
Reddit mentioned two AI-powered solutions to help balance keyword targeting and scalability within the platform:
This feature works in tandem with keyword targeting to help advertisers broaden their reach, without sacrificing relevance.
Reddit’s AI does the heavy lifting by analyzing signals like user behavior and ad creative performance to identify additional users who are likely to engage with your ad. In essence, it’s expanding your audience in a smart, data-driven way.
For PPC marketers, this means more exposure without having to rely solely on manually selecting every keyword or interest.
You set the initial parameters, and Reddit’s AI expands from there. This not only saves time but also ensures that your ads reach a broader audience that’s still relevant to your goals.
Reddit claims campaigns using Dynamic Audience Expansion have seen a 30% reduction in cost per action (CPA), making it a must-have for marketers focused on efficiency and budget optimization.
Another standout feature is Reddit’s multi-placement optimization. This feature uses machine learning to determine the most effective places to show your ads, whether in the feed or within specific conversation threads.
This multi-placement strategy ensures your ads are delivered in the right context to maximize user engagement and conversions.
For PPC marketers, ad placement is a critical factor in campaign success. With Reddit’s AI optimizing these placements, you can trust that your ads will appear where they have the highest likelihood of driving action—whether that’s getting users to click, convert, or engage.
Reddit’s new AI Keyword Suggestions tool helps with this by analyzing Reddit’s vast conversation data to recommend keywords you might not have thought of.
It allows you to discover new, high-performing keywords related to your campaign, expanding your reach to conversations you might not have considered. And because it’s powered by AI, the suggestions are always based on real-time data and trends happening within Reddit’s communities.
This can be particularly helpful for marketers trying to stay ahead of trending topics or those who want to ensure they’re tapping into conversations with high engagement potential.
As conversations on Reddit shift, so do the keywords that drive those discussions. Reddit’s AI Keyword Suggestions help keep your targeting fresh and relevant, ensuring you don’t miss out on key opportunities.
Reddit has also made strides in simplifying the campaign setup and management process. They’ve introduced a unified flow that allows advertisers to combine multiple targeting options within a single ad group.
You can now mix keywords, communities, and interests in one campaign, expanding your reach without overcomplicating your structure.
From a PPC perspective, this is huge. Simplifying campaign structure means you can test more variations, optimize faster, and reduce time spent on manual adjustments.
In addition, Reddit has enhanced its reporting capabilities with keyword-level insights, allowing you to drill down into what’s working and what’s not, giving you more control over your campaigns.
For marketers working with Google Ads, Facebook, or Microsoft Advertising, this new update from Reddit should be on your radar.
The combination of keyword targeting, AI-driven audience expansion, and multi-placement optimization makes Reddit a serious contender in the digital advertising space.
If you’re looking to diversify your PPC campaigns, drive higher conversions, and optimize costs, Reddit’s new offerings provide a unique opportunity.
You can read the full announcement from Reddit here.
In August 2024, Google lost its first major antitrust case in the U.S. Department of Justice vs. Google.
While we all gained some interesting insights about how Google’s algorithm works (hello, NavBoost!), understanding the implications of this loss for Google as a business is not the easiest to unravel. Hence, this article.
There’s still plenty we don’t know about Google’s future as a result of this trial, but it’s clear there will be consequences ahead.
Even though Google representatives have said they will appeal the decision, both sides are already working on proposals for how to restore competition, which will be decided by August 2025.
My significant other is a corporate lawyer, and this trial has been a frequent topic at the dinner table over the course of the last year.
We come from different professional backgrounds, but we have been equally invested in the outcome – both for our respective careers and industries. His perspective has helped me better grasp the potential legal and business outcomes that could be ahead for Google.
I will break that down for you in this article, along with what that could mean for the SEO industry and Search at-large.
In August 2024, Federal Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google violated the U.S. antitrust law by maintaining an illegal monopoly through exclusive agreements it had with companies like Apple to be the world’s default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.
During the case, we learned that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be the default search engine on its Safari browser, thus making it impossible for other search engines like DuckDuckGo or Bing to compete.
This case ruling also found Google guilty of monopolizing general search text advertising because Google was able to raise prices on ad products higher than what would have been possible in a free market.
Those ads are sold via Google Ads (formerly AdWords) and allow marketers to run ads against search keywords related to their business.
Note: There is a second antitrust case still underway about whether Google has created illegal monopolies with open web display ad technology as well. Closing arguments will be heard for that in November 2024 with a verdict to follow
On Oct. 8, 2024, the DOJ filed proposed antitrust remedies for Google. Until this point, there has been plenty of speculation about potential solutions.
Now, we know that the DOJ will be seeking remedies in four “categories of harm”:
The following sections highlight potential remedies the DOJ proposed in that filing.
In order to address Google’s search distribution and revenue sharing, it is likely that we will see a ban on exclusive contracts going forward for Google.
In the Oct. 8 filing, the DOJ outlined exploring limiting or prohibiting default agreements, pre-installation agreements, and other revenue-sharing agreements related to search and search-related products.
Given this is what the case was centered around, it seems most likely that we will see some flavor of this outcome, and that could provide new incentives for innovation around search at Apple.
Judge Mehta noted in his judgment that Apple had periodically considered building its own search technology, but decided against it when an analysis in 2018 concluded Apple would lose more than $12 billion in revenue during the first five years if they broke up with Google.
If Google were no longer able to have agreements of this nature, we may finally see Apple emerge with a search engine of its own.
According to a Bloomberg report in October 2023, Apple has been “tinkering” with search technology for years.
It has a large search team dedicated to a next-generation search engine for Apple’s apps called “Pegasus,” which has already rolled out in some apps.
And its development of Spotlight to help users find things across their devices has started adding web results to this tool pointing users to sites that answer search queries.
Apple already has a web crawler called Applebot that finds sites it can provide users in Siri and Spotlight. It has also built its own search engines for some of its services like the App Store, Maps, Apple TV, and News.
Apple purchased a company called Laserlike in 2019, which is an AI-based search engine founded by former Google employees. Apple’s machine learning team has been seeking new engineers to work on search technologies as well.
All of these could be important infrastructure for a new search engine.
If users are given more choices in their default search engine, some may stray away from Google, which could cut its market share.
However, as of now, Google is still thought of as the leader in search quality, so it’s hard to gauge how much would realistically change if exclusive contracts were banned.
A new search engine from Apple would obviously be an interesting development. It would be a new algorithm to test, understand, and optimize for.
Knowing that users are hungry for another quality option, people would likely embrace Apple in this space, and it could generate a significant amount of users, if the results are high enough quality. Quality is really key.
Search is the most used tool on smartphones, tablets, and computers. Apple has the users that Google needs.
Without Apple’s partnership with Google, Apple has the potential to disrupt this space. It can offer a more integrated search experience than any other company out there. And its commitment to privacy is appealing to many long-time Google users.
The DOJ would likely view this as a win as well because Apple is one of the few companies large enough to fully compete across the search space with Google.
Related to the accumulation and use of data harm Google has caused, the DOJ is considering a remedy that forces Google to license its data to competitors like Bing or DuckDuckGo.
The antitrust ruling found that Google’s contracts ensure that Google gets the most user data, and that data streams also keep its competitors from improving their search results to compete better.
In the Oct. 8 filing, the DOJ is considering forcing Google to make: 1) the indexes, data, fees, and models used for Google search, including those used in AI-assisted search features, and 2) Google search results, features, and ads, including the underlying ranking signals available via API.
Believe it or not, this solution has precedent, although certainly not at the same scale as what is being proposed for Google.
The DOJ required AT&T to provide royalty-free licenses to its patents in 1956, and required Microsoft to make some of its APIs available to third parties for free after they lost an antitrust case in 1999.
Google has argued that there are user privacy concerns related to data sharing. The DOJ’s response is that it is considering prohibiting Google from using or retaining data that cannot be shared with others because of privacy concerns.
Should Google be required to do any of this, it would be an unprecedented victory for the open web. It is overwhelming to think of the possibilities if any of these repercussions were to come to fruition.
We would finally be able to see behind the curtain of the algorithm and ranking signals at play. There would be a true open competition to build rival search engines.
If Google were no longer to use personalized data, we might see the end of personalized search results based on your search history, which has pros and cons.
I would also be curious what would happen to Google Discover since that product provides content based on your browsing history.
The flip side of this potential outcome is that it will be easier than ever to gamify search results again, at least in the short term.
If everyone knew what makes pages rank in Google, we would be back in the early days of SEO, when we could easily manipulate rank.
But if others take the search algorithm and build upon it in different ways, maybe that wouldn’t be as big of a concern in the long term.
The DOJ filing briefly touched on one intriguing remedy for the harm Google has caused regarding the generation and display of search results.
The DOJ lawyers are proposing that website publishers receive the ability to opt out of Google features or products they wish to.
This would include Google’s AI Overviews, which they give as an example, but it could also include all other SERP features where Google relies on websites and other content created by third parties – in other words, all of them.
Because Google has held this monopoly, publishers have had virtually no bargaining power with Google in regards to being included in SERP features without risking complete exclusion from Google.
This solution would help publishers have more control over how they show up in the search results.
This could be potentially huge for SEO if the DOJ does indeed move forward with requiring Google to allow publishers to opt out of any and all features and products they wish without exclusion in Google’s results altogether.
There are plenty of website publishers who do not want Google to be able to use their content to train its AI products, and wish to opt out of AI Overviews.
When featured snippets first came about, there was a similar reaction to those.
Based on the query, featured snippets and AI Overviews have the ability to help or harm website traffic numbers, but it’s intriguing to think there could be a choice in the matter of inclusion.
To address advertising scale and monetization harm caused by Google, the DOJ filing provided a few half-baked solutions related to search text advertising.
Because Google holds a 91% market share of search in the U.S., other search engines have struggled to monetize through advertising.
One solution is to require Google to license or syndicate its ad feed independent of its search results. This way, other search engines could better monetize by utilizing Google’s advertising feed.
It is also looking at remedies to provide more transparent and detailed reporting to advertisers about search text ad auctions and monetization, and the ability to opt out of Google search features like keyword expansion and broad match that advertisers don’t want to partake in.
I don’t see obvious implications for SEO, but there are plenty for our friends in PPC.
While licensing the Google ad feed is intriguing in order to help other search engines monetize, it doesn’t get at the issue of Google overcharging advertisers in their auctions.
More thought and creativity might be needed here to find a solution that would make sense for both creating more competition in search and fairness for advertisers.
They are certainly on the right track with more transparency in reporting and allowing advertisers to opt out of programs they don’t want to be part of.
The DOJ lawyers are also considering “structural remedies” like forcing Google to sell off parts of its business, like the Chrome browser or the Android operating system.
Divesting Android is the remedy that has been discussed the most. It would be another way to prevent Google from having a position of power over device makers and requiring them to enter into agreements for access to other Google product apps like Gmail or Google Play.
If the DOJ forced Google to sell Chrome, that would just be another way to force them to stop using the data from it to inform the search algorithm.
There are behavioral remedies already mentioned that could arguably accomplish the same thing, and without the stock market-shattering impact of a forced breakup.
That said, depending on the outcome of the U.S. election, we could see a DOJ that feels empowered to take bigger swings, so this may still be on the table.
The primary issue with this remedy is that Google’s revenue largely comes from search advertising. So, if the goal is to reduce its market share, would breaking up smaller areas of the business really accomplish that?
If Android became a stand-alone business, I don’t see implications for SEO because it isn’t directly related to search.
Also, Apple controls so much of the relevant mobile market that spinning Android off would have little to no effect in regards to addressing monopolistic practices.
If Chrome were sold, Google would lose the valuable user signals that inform Navboost in the algorithm.
That would have some larger implications for the quality of its results since we know, through trial testimony, that those Chrome user signals are heavily weighted in the algorithm.
How much of an impact that would have on the results may only be known inside Google, or maybe not even there, but it could be material.
There is so much to be decided in the year (potentially years) to come regarding Google’s fate.
While all of the recent headlines focus on the possibility of Google being broken up, I think this is a less likely outcome.
While divesting Chrome may be on the table, it seems like there are easier ways to accomplish the government’s goals.
And Android and Google Play are both free to customers and rely on open-source code, so mandating changes to them doesn’t seem the most logical way to solve monopolistic practices.
I suspect we’ll see some creative behavioral remedies instead. The banning of exclusive contracts feels like a no-brainer.
Of all the solutions out there, requiring Google to provide APIs of Google search results, ranking signals, etc. is by far the most intriguing idea.
I cannot even imagine a world where we have access to that information right now. And I can only hope that we do see the emergence of an Apple search engine. It feels long overdue for it to enter this space and start disrupting.
Even with Google appealing Mehta’s decision, the remedy proposals will continue ahead.
In November, the DOJ will file a more refined framework, and then Google will propose its own remedies in December.
More resources:
Featured Image: David Gyung/Shutterstock
The Internet Archive has been hit by a cyberattack, compromising the personal data of over 31 million users.
The nonprofit organization, known for its Wayback Machine service, which archives web pages, is grappling with the aftermath of the sophisticated attack.
On October 9, visitors to the Internet Archive’s website were greeted with a pop-up message indicating a security breach.
A hacker group operating under the name SN_BlackMeta has claimed responsibility for the attack, stating on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that they had launched “several highly successful attacks” against the Archive.
The breach exposed user records, including email addresses, screen names, and bcrypt-hashed passwords.
Troy Hunt, founder of the data breach notification service Have I Been Pwned, confirmed receiving a database containing information on 31 million unique email addresses associated with the Internet Archive.
The Internet Archive’s website and Wayback Machine service remain inaccessible as of this writing.
This outage is concerning given Google’s recent integration of Wayback Machine links into its search results, a feature announced just last month to enhance access to historical web content.
The timing of this attack could potentially disrupt Google’s new feature, which was designed to provide users with easy access to archived versions of web pages directly from search results.
Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, acknowledged the breach in a post on X, stating:
“What we know: DDOS attack–fended off for now; defacement of our website via JS library; breach of usernames/email/salted-encrypted passwords. What we’ve done: Disabled the JS library, scrubbing systems, upgrading security.”
Kahle is saying that while they were attacked in several ways, they’re actively working to fix the problems and make their systems safer.
However, user data was compromised, so users should be cautious and change their passwords.
The organization is actively working to restore its services and secure its systems, but the full extent of the damage remains unclear.
The attack on the Internet Archive is troubling, given its role in preserving digital content.
Founded in 1996, the organization aims to provide “universal access to all knowledge” and has become a resource for researchers and journalists.
While the exact motivations behind the attack remain unclear, cybersecurity experts speculate that the attackers may have been searching for specific information or attempting to alter historical records.
This serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure, even for organizations dedicated to preserving it.
This attack compromises user data and temporarily denies access to an invaluable resource for internet users worldwide.
As the Internet Archive continues its recovery efforts, users are advised to change their passwords and remain vigilant for any potential misuse of their personal information.
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