Google Supports Extortion

Though transparency in business is, as a general rule, helpful to consumers, Google's practice of ranking complaint web sites............

New York City, NY (prHWY.com) December 24, 2012 - Though transparency in business is, as a general rule, helpful to consumers, Google's practice of ranking complaint web sites higher in search results can sometimes give consumers the wrong idea.

A variety of "review" web sites have recently sprung which supposedly give consumers a stronger voice in the marketplace. Though honest customer reviews can yield exceptionally helpful information, fake reviews abound on these sites. It's impossible to police reviews for authenticity and when these review sites are ranked high in Google's search results, it becomes easy for web site owners to use extortion to get fake negative reviews removed.

By supporting the negative evaluations set forth on sites like http://www.complaintslist.com, Google is unfortunately supporting the extortion of honest and trustworthy businesses. Bigger businesses with plenty of marketing dollars protecting their niche in the marketplace are relatively untouched by these bogus negative reviews, but smaller businesses can be hit hard by one negative review that ranks high in search engine results.

Some of the most popular review web sites include http://www.reviewopedia.com, http://www.consumeraffairs.com, and http://www.scam.com. These sites appear to be catering to mistreated customers, but in fact, many of the reviews posted at these sites are false. As a result prospective customers can be led astray, especially when the negative assessments appear high in Google search results. What's truly shocking however is what goes on behind the scenes between complaint-based web sites and the businesses that have been hit hard with a negative review.

Businesses that have been targeted by review sites often receive offers to have their negative review removed...for a price. One business owners, for example, reported that he was asked for $5,000 down and $1,000 a month thereafter to keep the negative reviews from appearing online.

By claiming to offer "reviews" (implying balanced accounts of services rendered), these web site seem to be advocating for the common man, a nobel cause except that the reviews aren't real. And these negative reviews, which are often lacking in any substantial information about a business, tend to rank high in search results, especially at Google, adding insult to injury for businesses that have been targeted.

Google, the most popular search engine in the United States, is said to offer unbiased and relevant search engine results. Indeed, Google search results often define "relevance" for a set of terms. More and more, people blindly trust Google to tell them what's relevant and what's not for any given search term. Google algorithms tend to rate review web sites high and as a result prospective customers of a negatively reviewed business may believe that these false assessments by angry customers are more significant than they actually are. Because customers today rely heavily on Google to define relevance, negative reviews that rank high instantly seem important, even though they rarely provide any valuable information.

Though large companies like BP can, through gross negligence dump tons of oil into the ocean, changing the ecological course of life throughout the planet and still continue to stay afloat financially by developing positive marketing campaigns, Google is supporting the extortion of small businesses by sites like saltydroid.info or http://www.scambook.com that can't afford to create feel-good advertising to ward off a high-ranking negative review.

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Tag Words: negative review, extortion

Categories: News

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