08/15/2024
How has Google’s monopoly impacted Whidbey Island and what can we do about it?
A monopoly is, in historical terms, is as easy to understand as the game: there’s price gouging and an ‘ouch’ felt by consumers and businesses. Then comes last week’s ruling that Google is a monopoly. For a free service which helps you find things, where’s the ‘ouch?’
Google’s opaque algorithm is at the heart of the Internet, connecting most of the western world’s end-users, advertisers, and content creators. Unpacking how this algorithm works is nearly impossible. Even if we had the source code, the black-box nature of AI prevents reverse engineering. So, our most insightful angle may just be to follow the money.
HOW ARE LOCAL COMMUNITIES FAIRING IN GOOGLE'S GLOBAL MARKETPLACE?
Impact #1: The Internet is getting more global and less local. Since 2019, the market share of companies NOT in the top 25 shrank by 24%, while companies in the top 25 expanded. This has made it more costly for small businesses to compete for our attention online. Whether it's Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo, try a search for 'Whidbey gifts' and all three will promote Esty, TripAdvisor and Amazon, despite there being enough local gift shops to fill the page. And yes, our gift shops offer ecommerce too!
Impact #2: Too many ads! The average Internet user in the United States is now viewing $55/month in ads. That’s $46M/year of Whidbey Islander’s screen time going directly to big-tech!
Impact #3: Our Internet experience is increasingly algorithmically generated, leading to more screen time, distractions, and ads. These algorithms are great when you’re shopping, but unfortunately, they are also programmed to monetize your every keystroke when you’re not shopping.
SO WHAT’S TO BE DONE?
We can take action as individual end-users, community leaders, or both:
As individual end-users:
Make a local website the starting page for your browser, and bookmark the local sites that matter to you. Subscribe to their newsletters. This can be your first-priority view of the Internet, which will be ad-free, algorithm free, and with top-notch content.
To get started, a sample list of Whidbey’s-own top 25 sites is provided below. This list is admittedly subjective, and open to revisions, but is entirely comprised of organizations dedicated to the service of our community:
ThisIsWhidbey: https://thisiswhidbey.com/
Whidbey Community Foundation: https://community.whidbeyfoundation.org/non-profit-directory
Whidbey Island Arts Council visual artists: https://www.islandartscouncil.org/visualartsdirectory.html
Whidbey Island Arts Council performing artists: https://www.islandartscouncil.org/performing-artists.html
Whidbey Island Arts Council literary artists: https://www.islandartscouncil.org/literary-artists.html
Whidbey Island Arts Council culinary artists: https://www.islandartscouncil.org/culinary-artists.html
Whidbey Woking Artists: https://www.whidbeyworkingartists.com/
Whidbey and Camano Islands: https://whidbeycamanoislands.com/
Whidbey Farm Stands: https://www.whidbeyfarmstands.com/
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts: https://www.wicaonline.org/
Whidbey Island Grown Food Coop: https://www.whidbeyislandgrown.com/
Whidbey Local: https://www.whidbeylocal.com/
Whidbey Telecom Directory: https://www.whidbeytelecomdirectory.com/
South Whidbey Tilth: https://www.southwhidbeytilth.org/
South Whidbey Online: https://southwhidbey.online/
Human Services and Community Services:
Helping Hand of Whidbey: https://helpinghandofsouthwhidbey.org/
Healing Circles: https://healingcircleslangley.org/2024-calendar/
City of Oak Harbor Senior Services: https://secure.rec1.com/WA/oak-harbor-wa/catalog
Island Roots Housing: https://islandrootshousing.org/
Foster Care: https://kidsfirst-ic.org/
Mother Mentors: https://www.mothermentors.org/
Senior Services (county): https://senior-resources.org/
Seniors At Home: https://swathome.clubexpress.com/
Veteran Resource Center: https://www.whidbeyvrc.org/
Whidbey Homeless Coalition: https://www.whidbeyhomeless.org/
Food Security: https://www.whidbeyislandnourishes.org/
As small business and community leaders, you can:
Make your websites, newsletters, SMS and in-person channels your top priorities, with delayed updates to social media, if required.
Identify 3-5 local partners for mutual hyperlinks on your websites. This will improve your site’s discoverability on both an intra and extra community basis. Include your competitors as well, for two reasons:
1. If neither of you are on the first-page of Google results for your industry keywords, ie., “Whidbey Gifts,” then you’re not competitors, at least not in online terms. Etsy.com and TripAdvisor.com are your competitors. With a little co-opitition, you can raise your business and others.
2. Your typical client is also your most discerning client. By partnering with local ‘competitors,’ you increase your bottom-of-funnel volume for more net-new clients.
In closing… The remedy stage of Google’s antitrust violations are likely to unfold slowly in the Q3-Q4 timeframe, at best. But we don’t have to wait. The time to redirect our online attention and investments from big-tech to local tech, is now.
https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/IAB_PwC_Internet_Ad_Revenue_Report_2024.pdf
