‘Google controls the Internet’ might sound paranoid, but they do. Whilst they don’t exactly have editorial control over websites, they can force websites into entirely changing their revenue model.

A large percentage of my income used to be generated from text link ads, but I can no longer generate money in this way. Why, you ask? Google saw it fit to reduce the PageRank of this blog as a penalty, which meant I no longer got the visitors and the status to sell these adverts.

Google claims it made their search engine less usable, and whilst this may be true to a degree, they have made the whole internet become less usable as webmasters must now turn to more intrusive traditional adverts, such as advertising banners or interstitials.

I have another reason, besides usability, why Google may have seen it fit to ban text links. As text links became increasingly popular, more webmasters turned their backs on intrusive, and not as profitable, Google AdSense advertisements. This will have naturally reduced Google’s profit. Perhaps Google realised the only way to get people back on AdSense was through penalising text links, from which they don’t profit.

So, I turn away from text links. What do Google do? They stop the advertising programme which was most profitable for me, Google Referrals, and don’t let me join their new affiliate programme. I used to use ‘Firefox with Google’ advertisements, but Google are obviously now unwilling to foot the bill for Firefox users, especially following the release of Chrome. I doubt I can even make $100/month from AdSense now.

Thanks to Google, advertising online is becoming harder and harder. If advertising is harder to obtain, there’ll be less content as webmasters/bloggers will have less motivation to create content.

I understand Google wants to maintain the quality of their search engine, but I do wonder if there’s a line to draw regarding where Google’s influence should stop. Whilst I realise I don’t have to comply with Google’s ToS, in reality I do or I’d lose the vast majority of my visitors.

Perhaps it’s time for a serious competitor to Google. All giants fall, eventually.