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Google Nuked Tech Support Ads to Kill off Scammers. OK. It Also Blew Away Legit Repair Shops. Not OK:
Collateral damage: Web advert crackdown broke our fix-it businesses, sigh owners
With America's trade watchdog on Tuesday hosting a workshop in Washington DC on restrictions that limit the feasibility of repair devices, hardware rehab forum iFixit has penned an open letter to the FTC to complain about Google's ad policies that hinder the mending of machines.
Last August, the Chocolate Factory announced that because its ad system lacks an easy way to distinguish between legitimate businesses and scammers, it was planning to institute a verification program limiting ads for third-party tech support and repair services to legitimate providers.
In theory, Google's program should cut down on scammers who pay for online ads that promote computer troubleshooting, virus remediation, or other security-related assistance, only to rip off victims or hijack their machines.
And Google's program may well be thwarting these crooks, though at the cost of denying legitimate repair businesses the ability to market themselves to customers.
"By treating all third-party repair as a fraud-prone liability, and directing all interest in device repair to their own Maps and search results, Google is severely handicapping repair businesses, prioritizing purchases over repair and reuse, and deciding which companies customers can turn to when they need to fix electronics," explained Kevin Purdy, a writer for iFixit.
If it's not broke, don't fix it. If it is broke... can't fix it?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by isostatic on Wednesday July 17 2019, @09:00AM (1 child)
Live by google, die by google. This goes for those building a business around google adverts, google video and google search, or indeed any other platform controlled by a single entity.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 17 2019, @01:49PM
I am constantly astounded how quickly and unceremoniously Google shuts down services that I, personally, find - if not highly valuable at least mildly entertaining.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 17 2019, @01:41PM
So, you say you're a legit support shop... is there any such thing, really? Is there a neutral 3rd party auditing process that assures customers that the IT guy isn't creating problems that he knows how to fix just to keep his contract open? Even if the larger organization is mostly not evil, what if there are a few non-compliant actors associated with them? (Looking at you: Google Dutch language consultant.)
In this case, it may be pretty clear: Google doesn't have the resources to effectively sort the good from the bad, and if you're in a business that is so difficult to distinguish from scammers, maybe a global search engine isn't the right marketing channel for you anyway? You want to work remote for clients all over the globe? Nice idea, but the global marketing channel has proven itself incapable of even controlling its own contractors, much less millions of advertisers.
I think it's a responsible move on Google's part to shut down the barrel of bad apples, even if there are some good ones in there with them. Really good apples will have to find another way to reach the world markets, maybe via established, trusted auditing/reputation assurance services?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 17 2019, @04:34PM (2 children)
Anon for obvious reasons.
I used to work for an AV firm the US Government had a meltdown about. The Home Support guys had angry customers every day thanks to companies like iYogi that bought all the relevant keywords like "$vendor support" and "$vendor phone number". When our team reached out to Google to stop these fraudulent ads and search results, the only answer Google had was for us to purchase the keywords ourselves to take up the space. So when Google claims to have seen a rise in misleading ad experiences stemming from third-party technical support providers in 2018 [www.blog.google] they are ignoring that this was a problem for five years or more. iYogi made a fortune on misleading un-saavy users, and Google made their cut off of those ads.
This isn't just Google being evil, this was Google being Yelp evil.
(Score: 1) by Coward, Anonymous on Thursday July 18 2019, @07:27AM (1 child)
In the end, Google suffers from their low quality results. I can't be the only one who finds their search less and less useful.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 18 2019, @01:58PM
Nope, unfortunately it isn't a game played on absolute metrics like: "I want X, how much time and effort does it take me to either find X, or be reasonably assured that X isn't available." It's a relative game, and when the choices are Google or Duck Duck Go and friends, relatively speaking, Google is the best, even if they are falling apart.
Now that the internet has been mainstream for 20+ years, I think that while most things are improving, some sources of information like the phone book and classified ads have withered away to near uselessness. There was a brief burst in the early 2000s when the traditional sources of information went online and datamining was gloriously improved vs 5 years earlier, but with things like CraigsList, Google, Netflix and Amazon coming to power, a lot has been lost in the transition.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday July 17 2019, @08:00PM
As soon as I read the phrase "Chocolate Factory" in TFS, I knew it was an article from El Reg.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday July 17 2019, @08:07PM
I can still get to Geek Squad with Google, so I'm fine.
*ducks*
*then read TFA and see this is exactly the problem described*
But seriously, running a quick search doesn't show any local problem to me (aside from using Google). Most of our local tech shops come up just fine.
This sig for rent.