Ethics In Question As Search Companies Look For Profits

• In a down economy, search companies are being pitted against Wall St. and Madison Ave., who think that times will be tough for the current giants of search. Their theory is that whatever way you cut up a company like Google, at the end of the day you will only find out that they are just an advertising company. We are seeing such proof in Google and Baidu’s ethical decisions as of late, searching high and low for any remaining industries or outlets that haven’t been studied for gold.
• Did you think Google Maps was just a nice addition Google wanted to offer to users needing directions? Google is now making money on it through ads. What about Android? Did you think the Open Handset Alliance was just something that Google wanted to do for the good of mobile phones? Nope, Google wanted their foot in the door to get Google search on decks. What about their cool applications on the iPhone with voice search? Google just announced they are offering advertisers the ability to directly target mobile customers through their search app now. The latest stretch for Google was to allow beer advertisers to purchase AdWords campaigns in the fall and now hard alcohol companies as of yesterday. This is the first time we have seen Google go after anything and everything with a dollar sign at the expense of compromising previous decisions on industries that they wanted to stay clear of like alcohol.
• Baidu has been even more scrutinized. If you thought hard alcohol was questionable, Baidu has gotten itself in actual trouble by letting unlicensed medical companies advertise their products or services through search results. Talk about an unethical industry to be making money from. This case goes on top of the already active anti-trust suit that is being pushed upon Baidu and their 61% search market domination in China. Because of the suits, JP Morgan has cut earnings forecasts for the company by 5% for this year and 19% for 2009, citing weaker revenue from the medical and pharmaceutical sector since Baidu shut them out.
• Neither search company wanted these tough times to come so soon after they have been rapidly growing. Google had grand plans to spread it’s seed everywhere with useful products for everyone and then one day flip the switch on the revenue. With these tough times, they don’t have the cushion to wait. All it means is that anything Google pushes out from now one will cause one to raise the question, where will they put the advertising in? Ethics is the single most important issue for both search giants, especially in the coming years with localized advertising coming at you ‘on the go’. The last thing they want is further skepticism of monetization and privacy concerns surrounding their companies as it has already been in question for years.
• What do you think about Baidu and Google looking high and low for revenue so soon at the expense of ethics?

Tagged as: alcohol, baidu, ethical decisions, ethics, Google, local search