“Don’t be Evil.” This is Google’s unofficial company motto, which I was unaware of till yesterday, but which did provide the spark for this blog post. I think it’s a motto we can all agree with, though some people don’t necessarily follow. However, I don’t think many people argue that we are not surrounded by evil, and that there are many Evil people, most of which have power. It’s a sad fact that power tends to come not with responsibility, but with greed and of course, evil. However, that is not the case of the internet. Which I why the internet is my favorite invention (though it wasn’t invented by anybody, including Al Gore).
No one owns the internet, though I think I can safely say Google controls it. More than 50% of all searches on the internet are done through Google. That’s on the internet, not in the U.S. I would argue that never has a company had so much power and not let it go to their head. Google’s creators only make a dollar a year, on their own request, so that their interests are tied to the stockholders (though they are still quite rich). But their power is derived from their product, not with their motto or practices, and that control is not one of absolute power.
Google came around at a time of a massive battle for search engine supremacy, and they came out on top due to their quality of search. They intended, and still intend, to list sites based on quality of content, to bring you the best the web has to offer. This creates a push for better websites, with natural links that customers generate on blogs, etc. This in turn makes customers listen to their customers, which makes the groundswell start to influence companies. The reason the internet is so great is it demands quality. Because if you don’t do it, someone one else will. If someone came up with a way to generate better searches than Google, Google would have to adjust or lose its spot at the top. If Facebook, the #1 social networking site, tried to charge 5 dollars a month to use its service, it would see millions of customers stop using the site within the day. The internet doesn’t have long term contracts, and it demands only the best, because its customer controlled. When using the internet for business, this is an important concept to realize, and if you operate off this principle, you will do well.
The internet is a source of information, entertainment, networking, and sales. If you are doing sales, than obviously you should strive to have the best prices available, because you have to compete with other companies doing the same thing. If you are involved in the three other sectors of the internet, and you are providing a service for the community at large, the price you are charging better be zero. Obviously if you are providing services for companies, you can feel free to charge them. But as downloading becomes easier for anyone to do, you better start providing services for free and gain a following. Because once your price is zero, no one can undercut you, and then it’s just a popularity contest. Your money should come from advertisements, but it shouldn’t hurt the quality of your site. Google for example, separates their natural search results from their PPC results, and if they stopped doing that, they would stop being popular. YouTube can never cost a cent for people to upload videos, or for people to view videos, or they lose their power.
The internet is controlled by the people, and it’s for the people. Charge the community at large the least amount as possible, and make the companies pay to have access to your customers. Quality should be your number one concern, because people will come, if your web site is good and helpful. So don’t be evil, and maybe conducting business can become a good thing again.
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