Google, needless to say, is immensely popular around the world. In Europe, the search engine serves 90% of the users looking for information online. Despite that popularity, Google is not so
popular among the officials of the European Union. Recently, the EU Parliament has taken several actions that threaten major implications for the way Google and other search engines operate globally. Those implications could easily affect south Florida Internet marketing before too long.
A Different Kind of Censorship
South Florida Internet marketing companies do not worry too much about search engines excluding their sites from their results pages, unless they have been engaging in irresponsible SEO practices. In Europe, however, news stories are disappearing from Google’s pages on a daily basis. It’s due to enforcement of the “right to be forgotten,” a new law that requires search engines to stop linking to outdated stories about individuals if those individuals request them to do so. This may help someone with a 20-year-old drug use conviction shed his reputation, but it also sets a dangerous precedent of censorship.
Monopoly Accusations
Around Thanksgiving, the Parliament of the EU voted that Google should be divided into separate companies. The exact suggestions are complex, but the basic idea is that the search engine should be separated from the other features and services that Google provides. The reasoning behind the suggestions is that Google has too much power to influence searchers by promoting search results artificially.
Most Florida Internet marketing company experts dismiss the vote, especially since it has no actual power to influence Google’s actions. However, it does show the level of mistrust and hostility that the EU’s leadership has toward the search engine giant.
We all know that south Florida Internet marketing is destined to change radically every year, but these developments in Europe show that there may be a strange storm brewing over what content international searchers can find on Google.
