I understand that TechCrunch needs to stir the pot to get readers.  I won’t even address the fact that they chose to publish this abomination. But I will take a swing at the writer.

I think it’s clear why the author is anonymous – because he doesn’t want to be laughed out of his CEO role.

He’s proposing that Google is “unfair” and “mysterious” in what it puts on it’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Newsflash: Google can be as unfair as it wants

…as long as it doesn’t break any of the agreements it’s made in it’s legal agreements.

The author, from up on his high horse, compares this to a Country or a City:

Suppose the paradigm is the streets of Los Angeles. Let’s imagine that in order to enter the city you had to pass through a single gate. And once you entered that gate, the streets you were or were not allowed to go down — and thus the businesses you were or were not allowed to visit — could be randomly blocked from your access.

Sigh. Google is NOT A COUNTRY

They’re not a city.  They’re not a government.  They are a business.

Let’s look at a REAL example, shall we?  Let’s compare Google to a supermarket.  My local supermarket blocks off aisles all the time.  Maybe it’s restocking, maybe it’s got a spill.  I don’t necessarily get to know, and I certainly don’t get to say “THIS IS UNFAIR.  I DEMAND ALL PATHS THROUGH YOUR STORE BE OPENED TO MYSELF.”

The second factor is that the search engine can, at any time, determine that either company A or company B may or may not buy traffic within its index.

Oh really?  Let’s go back to the supermarket, shall we?  Should we prevent them from ditching your company’s brand of cornflakes because they think they’re not selling well?  Or because they don’t like how you do business?  Do they even have to tell you why?  No.  That’s courtesy – not law.  To suggest that a business can’t decide who it does business with is just obnoxiously short-sighted.

Yes, he may have some points about arbitrariness of paid search account administration.  I have heard stories of accounts being unceremoniously shut down without explanation, and that’s something of concern that is completely separate from this concept of private companies having to reveal how they do business and change to be “more fair”.

Let’s keep in mind that I’m a liberal, here.  I’m all for more restrictions on giant financial institutions – in fact, I think we should prevent them from ever getting so giant that they “can’t fail”.  But that’s because those institutions affect, as we’ve seen so clearly, the stability of our country.  Google ain’t that.

Lastly, to say that “search engine optimization is more voodoo than science” is just asinine.

Do you also think that airplanes are magic?  Just because you haven’t taken the time to learn from the best and keep yourself educated doesn’t mean something is voodoo.

There are plenty of intelligent folks out there devoting their days to understanding search engine optimization.  None of them will tell you it’s easy.  But none of them will tell you it’s voodoo – it’s a science that involves a lot of knowledge, research and hard work.  Don’t diminish their work just because you don’t have the patience to do it yourself.