Do other online companies hate Google?

This is actually a question raised on my head after knowing that Viacom wants Google to pay them $1 billion. Yahoo! in other way insult their users when searching for Google using Yahoo!’s search engine. And now, Ask.Com post the ad on Ask.Com SERP as shown below whenever you’ll search for “Google”.

The message says, “Information is, and always has been, man’s most precious commodity. The internet demands freedom of choice. But where is the freedom in allowing one company to control what we see on the net? Don’t be a droid - use different sources to get information.”

The Freedom of Choice?

I don’t think Google controlled the information shown on the internet. And I don’t think my freedom of choice is controlled by Google.

I know Ask.com, Yahoo! and other search engines has the ability that Google doesn’t have but when I choose Google on my searches doesn’t mean Google controlled me. Sometimes I use other search engines when searching the net but I found Google SER useful compared to others.

So, what’s the point of this ad? This ad is obviously sponsored by Google’s rival, Ask and Yahoo!, just like what other bloggers found out:

The problem is, information-revolution.org is owned by Profero, the digital marketing agency retained by Ask and Yahoo. What looks like a grassroots campaign is a very negative marketing blast from at least one rival search engine. And its readers know it: just a quick perusal over the comments to the blog posts on the site reveal that most are lambasting the culprits for trying to pull a fast one. This is going to blow up in Ask’s face, and they should probably think about damage limitation.

And it was also revealed that this ad is not just published online but also will be also aired:

Television ads will launch in the UK this week, done in a funny style where it seems as if revolutionaries have broken into a regular TV program to demand that people think about choice. Radio ads are also going, and I’ve already shown examples of billboard-style ads in the London Underground. Ask is even doing light displays on Westminster Abbey.

They might say that they’re not doing this to attack Google (but just to wake the “sleep searchers” up), but it’s already obvious that they really are attacking Google.

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