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Google's latest target: Yamli

By: Qwaider

On:Friday, October 24, 2008 9:02:40 PM
In:Science & Technology
Viewed: (10440) times

Currently 4.7/5 Stars.
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Rated 4.7/5 stars (149 votes cast)

So far, the "Do no Evil" turned out to be a load of crap! Just like the false advertising of Apple, Google decides to compete against someone new, in the most dirty of ways. Utilizing their own monopoly over the search markets to push their own services over other better, superior and earlier to the market products.

This time Google is targeting the users of Yami, trying to push their own "crappy" solution called "Transliteration" (or Ta3reeb as they call it). Which is not even ready for prime time or even baked enough to be used as a beta!

yamli logo

How do you know you're doing something phenomenally great? You'll find companies like Google taking advantage of their infrastructure to push their own solution.

Check out these screen captures to see how Google utilizes their monopoly to compete in a sneaky way... You will only see these if you search for Yamli from Arabic Google sites (like google.jo, google.com.ae, google.sa) but not Google.com

Google attacking Yamli

UPDATE ... UPDATE ...

GOOGLE HAS RETRACTED THAT AD! Looks like they have felt the mounting pressure and decided to play nice!

It's one thing to compete, it's a completely other thing to launch a sneak attack on successful services to try and take their place. Not only that, but do it in this sneaky way.

What does a software giant like Google needs with a simple, peaceful, open and innovative solution like Yamli? Why compete in this way? Why can't they use their own sorting algorithm to show their "solution" where it belongs? (like page 37?)

What Google is doing is unethical, anti-competitive and monopolistic and is pure evil!

A few questions pop to mind like:

Is it ok for Google to use its growing monopoly as an unfair advantage to suppress the competition? Whoever this competition might be?
Has Google used such practices in the past to marginalize competition on a very uneven battle ground?
If Google directly advertises for its own products when people are obviously searching for the non-Google products, is their mantra still "do no evil"?
Has Google deliberately hide negative content about it's practices?
Is this a Google wide policy, or perhaps it's only Google Arabia that is being run like any other Arabic online business?

I wonder!

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Memories....

#1
Hani Obaid
Said
On: 10/24/2008 11:39:01 PM

That's just anti-competitive and plain wrong.

I'm also seeing the add when accessing google.com from their English page:
http://www.google.com/ncr

It looks like it is based on IP.

I tried to search for "msn" and hotmail, and other ms competing products, but didn't get ads for the corresponding google product. I guess they wouldn't mess with anyone with the pockets to sue them.

#2
globalorama
Said
On: 10/24/2008 11:46:25 PM

I can't help it but think it is a good thing for Yamli. If the all might google is targetting a tiny, two person company, then it should generate interest from the media and users. Also, if Google's iteration is crappy, it is even better. As users will flock to Yamli.

#3
ArabCrunch
Said
On: 10/25/2008 2:33:41 AM

one the other hand Google Ta3reeb is far less accurate and is behind Yamli in terms of features see post here:
http://arabcrunch.com/2008/10/google-launches-an-inaccurate-arabic-transliteration-ta3reeb-leverage-its-monoply-with-ads.html

#4
Qwaider
Said
On: 10/25/2008 2:45:16 AM

Thanks ArabChurch, that is an excellent review. I was going to link to it when I saw it on Qwaider Planet but you beat me to it :)

#5
muhammad
Said
On: 10/25/2008 3:05:08 AM

Advertising on the competitor terms is an industry practice. actually, given that no other ads show on these pages, the cost of each click on this ad is $.01!

we're in the business and we do this.
search for "redhat" and you'll get Sun ads
search for "mcafee" and you'll get CyberDefender ads
search for "windows media player" and you'll get real.com ads

the fact that ads do not show any more doesn't necessarily mean they have pulled it. The google ad engine stops showing ads if they do not get clicks. they also use a long complicated formula. there are many possibilities - one of which also is that they stopped the ad campaign.

#6
Qwaider
Said
On: 10/25/2008 3:10:02 AM

Thanks Muhammad, that might be true, but the end result is the same. It's Google pushing it's ranking to the front because of it's ownership of what comes out on that page. They own it therefore, they feel free to place whatever ad they want on it.

What is interesting is that it didn't show for searches from the US, only from other countries. Which is why this whole thing is very shady and monopolistic

#7
muhammad
Said
On: 10/25/2008 3:12:16 AM

actually, I have to correct myself. the google keyword policy is different for outside the US. Inside the US, it's OK to bid on competitor trademark terms, but it's not allowed outside the US, UK, & Canada.

then most likely Google pulled their ads because of complains. you are right.

#8
Mohammed S. Alnasiri
Said
On: 10/25/2008 3:13:13 AM

I agree that Google is doing something unethical, anti-competitive and monopolistic and is pure evil! & BTW, the point
"Is this a Google wide policy, or perhaps it's only Google Arabia that is being run like any other Arabic online business?"
is damm right....... Eventhough i'm from Saudi Arabia, I still believe that ethics in business are not exist in the arab countries yet...

Thanks for article though

#9
muhammad
Said
On: 10/25/2008 3:13:42 AM

one more thing. you say:
What is interesting is that it didn't show for searches from the US, only from other countries. Which is why this whole thing is very shady and monopolistic

this is called geo-targeting. Google would use your IP or the sit eyou're visiting to estimate your location and show you the most relevant ads.

all ad engines do this, including Yahoo & MSN. we use it heavily.

#10
Qwaider
Said
On: 10/25/2008 3:23:45 AM

Even I use it, see the little flag next to your name :)? But it's not only for ads. The audience is specific, people in the Arab world who could use this. Many can't type in Arabic, even with Arabic Keyboards.

Mohammed Alnasiri
Thanks for your comment. We say these things with pain in our hearts. We want the Arabic businesses to excel and be the best... Let's continue to hope so

#11
Mohammed S. Alnasiri
Said
On: 10/25/2008 3:29:27 AM

BTW, I forgot to mention that I quoted that sentence "What Google is doing is unethical, anti-competitive and monopolistic and is pure evil!" from one of the people who wrote a comment under the same subject in Techcrunch.com

Thanks Qwaider, & We will continue to hope for sure

#12
Hani Obaid
Said
On: 10/25/2008 6:42:07 AM

I asked Matt Cutts, the google engineer with a blog to comment. He posted about the abu treika controversy back when it happened. If you remember we had disagreed on that issue. Well we agree on this one :)

I'll update if he responds.

#13
za3tar
Said
On: 10/26/2008 3:01:38 AM

Hmm ... while i am not a big fan of Google, i have to say, you might be over reacting a bit. I mean, it would be unethical of them to put a link to their product as a top *search* result, but all what the did is just put an ad for their product, which i think might be fair game.

Still, i feel uneasy about Google taking control over every venue of our online life. With their Google analytics and ads spread all over the place, they can very easily track your every single movement online, which is scary to think about.

It is also scary to see them rear-in into venues such as Google Knol and Android, where i don't think that is their business yet. Imagine how much power can google have if they were to do something in Android to track your exact physical location (GPS) and/or parse your SMSes or voice conversations.

So yeah, i am not totally a blind supporter of Google, and i am down right worried about some of their practices, but i think this particular move was not totally jerky. They only placed an ad, and did not manipulate their search results.