I wish I had written today’s op-ed in the NY Times. I am glad to see that my concerns regarding Google’s supremacy are shared. Adam Raff talks at length about his business being “disappeared” by Google’s indexing bots. His self-interest in the problem doesn’t make his concerns any less important. Google’s indexes are a monopolistic gateway and the practice of Search Engine Optimization has never been more dicey.

The truth is that most companies are shunted off to Google’s Siberia indexes – making paid search a necessity for many. And there in lies the source of the monumental rip-off that is Google. I used to laugh: “Google won’t show you organically, then they add insult to injury and ask you to pay for the top slot.” That in and of itself should make us all very concerned, but the manner in which Google Adwords are sold makes things even worse: it has always been cloaked in secrecy and has become increasingly so over the years (see my previous post).

Google Adwords is not an auction at all but rather an Extortionist’s Ball.  The FTC ought to be looking long and hard into Google’s Adwords practices. If Adwords was a the NYSE, even the SEC would shut it down.