Possible Class Action Lawsuit Against Google NZ - Yellow Online special treatment?

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#759887 12-Feb-2013 09:01

I think we're going to need more popcorn...

As others have pointed out, Google is entitled to change, refine and redefine its algorithm, the sheer volume of papers they publish is testomy to the amount of focus they place on this segment of their business.

While the 'fairness' of returned results may be called into question (and also be heavily influenced by the profile of your machine/browsing habits), it is what it is. All business models tend to support some way or another of getting more focus on your product, be it paying more for ad slots within prime-time broadcast programming, or appearing as sponsored searches.

I think you will have your work cut out for you in terms of proving unfair practices from the G - I hope that the cold light of morning and after a night to sleep and re-evaluate, you may be in a better frame of mind to approach the problem you (and your clients) are having.

surfisup1000

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#759893 12-Feb-2013 09:11

googleantitrust: I am not sure you guys have actually read the link i posted - just one example.

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/regulator-defends-google-bias-settlement-20130114-2colu.html

From what I can understand is that google has such a monopoly they have to be careful not to abuse that.

The same would be true in NZ but whether the legal system gives the same protection cannot be guaranteed.

NZ has some pretty shonky laws when it comes to white collar type offending. Just look at all of the finance companies, not many people were punished despite incredibly shonky dealings.

The US put Madoff away very quickly. Same wouldn't happen here.

And, your complaint is about search engine rankings -- most of NZ wouldn't even really know why this is important let alone out of touch judges.

Just my armchair opinion, maybe I'm totally wrong.

gzt

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#759928 12-Feb-2013 10:11

I would like to examine at least one example related to a website which has gone down in rank after yellow and the one which has increased in rank. Going from the comments so would other people here.

Are you aware of any partnership agreement or other relationship between Yellow and Google?

Yellow.co.nz itself used to be a very poor quality site. This has improved markedly in several aspects recently. I believe the redesign and improvements overall will significantly increase search ranking. If for no other reason than reducing the penalty for ~~trying to foist total crap on the internet users of NZ~~ bad design and lack of content.

I read the article you linked as an example of google rigging search results. A one para summary they give near the top: "Google agreed to change the ways it presents some search results and runs search advertising, but was exonerated of the results bias claims"

I googled for a minute or two but did not get a good summary of the exact behavior Google agreed to change in the presentation of search results. Can you provide a link?

freitasm

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#759930 12-Feb-2013 10:15

NZRob is right. My search results are likely different from your search results as Google uses lots of signals to determine what is relevant to me.

Reality is that SEO is not a science and no one can promise this or that result of applying whatever techniques.

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#759986 12-Feb-2013 11:36

This is true, but it might be more accurate to say it is a science which requires constant research.

If you are searching for washing machine repair auckland you can take a fair guess about the constraints which are applied.

I get the same results through an anonymising web proxy. Still waiting on responses from the OP to sensible questions.

Toledo

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#759987 12-Feb-2013 11:37

I am purely a user of google and have nothing at all to do with website design etc - and never will. So from my outside opinion I can tell you that when I search for something on Google I will almost always skip the first 5 results and start looking about half way down the page - its pretty obvious the top ones are junk.

Another thing you need to prove is that yellow has actually paid money for what you are claiming. Just speculating means nothing. A company like Yellow can not just "hide" a $50k (stab in the dark) cost for advertising.

My opinions are purely my own and are not at all those of my employer 2degrees.

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dickytim

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#760015 12-Feb-2013 12:36

the way I see this situation is.

1, Yellow are better at using google

2, The OP is annoyed at this and now wants to sue Google

Maybe when google changed the way their search worked Yellow were on top of it and you weren't.

Ghostextechnica

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#760315 12-Feb-2013 18:22

We really do need an example, another entirely viable possibility is that yellow is using black hat SEO techniques to climb the ranks very quickly.

If you can find evidence of this, you can let google know, and all the offending sites will be penalised (I've done this before when a similar situation occurred).

dman

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#760350 12-Feb-2013 20:23

If freitasm locks this thread then we know he too along with Yellow Pages is in cahoots with Google... !! ;-) ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/c/SoundSpeeding

freitasm

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#760518 13-Feb-2013 08:03

Google AdWords Platform Manager job going at Yellow NZ.

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#761552 13-Feb-2013 09:25

Op is applying for said job at yellow, and is trolling here to help improve yellows results further?

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kontonnz

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#761560 13-Feb-2013 09:36

while Google rankings is interesting and garners some debate around how sites are ranked I am curious about the OP and I have one simple question since when have you been able to do class action lawsuits within NZ?

googleantitrust

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#763478 16-Feb-2013 17:09

surfisup1000:
googleantitrust: I am not sure you guys have actually read the link i posted - just one example.

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/regulator-defends-google-bias-settlement-20130114-2colu.html

NZ has some pretty shonky laws when it comes to white collar type offending. Just look at all of the finance companies, not many people were punished despite incredibly shonky dealings.

The US put Madoff away very quickly. Same wouldn't happen here.

And, your complaint is about search engine rankings -- most of NZ wouldn't even really know why this is important let alone out of touch judges.

Just my armchair opinion, maybe I'm totally wrong.

Hiya - yes that comment does outline your depth of understanding - Madoff was small fry compared to the people who run the money monopolies - for example the LIBOR fraud and 2008 banker bailouts - Madoff was just for public show/trial.
Same as in NZ - the big foreign banks were behind every major finance company that failed, then they were protected in the Courts on the basis that they would not start implicating the big foreign banks in the trials and evidence.
This is the true extent of monopolies in this Country and overseas - so I do not expect any high level analysis from your average IT consultant who gets his news from CNN and the Herald, or even the NBR for that matter.
Cheers :)

freitasm

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#763479 16-Feb-2013 17:12

googleantitrust: This is the true extent of monopolies in this Country and overseas - so I do not expect any high level analysis from your average IT consultant who gets his news from CNN and the Herald, or even the NBR for that matter.
Cheers :)

Wow. Some pointed accusations there. Obviously, from your point of view, there's only one person in this thread who is aware of all the machinations of evil companies such as Google, then?

As I said before, take off your tinfoil hat. There's no space here for crazy conspiracy theories.

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#763480 16-Feb-2013 17:15

kontonnz: while Google rankings is interesting and garners some debate around how sites are ranked I am curious about the OP and I have one simple question since when have you been able to do class action lawsuits within NZ?

One successful case - sets the precedent, then others can follow - will do just fine.

Cheers

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