The Crazy Google-Monopoly Remedy Being Floated

An interesting new theory is circulating around legal and tech circles — that the remedy the U.S. government might ask for, to cure Google’s monopoly, wouldn’t be the breakup of the company, but the liberation of its search engine.

Business Insider reports this morning that investors are circulating confidential research notes suggesting that Google might be forced to make its search index publicly available for anyone — and any other search site — to use.

How it works today

Today, competing search engine sites own their own indexes. Google uses its own its site. Bing uses its on Microsoft’s site, but they also licence it to other search sites like DuckDuckGo.

But doesn’t Google own its index?

That depends on which side’s lawyer you talk to, but clearly their index is just a list of content that is posted on other sites, created and owned by other people and companies. Google doesn’t own any of that content. It just makes that content easier to find.

Or, to use Google’s own mission statement: it “organizes the world's information and makes it universally accessible and useful.”

What it would look like

So if the American government forces Google to provide the raw listings to other sites through an API that could create a whole new collection of search sites.

A marketer’s nightmare?

While that would certainly help with the monopoly concerns, it’s probably not an approach marketers would like. After all, there’s great value in consolidation.

Since most people use Google to search, most eyeballs are in one place, and that’s just easier for marketers to buy.

There is precedent

Where we stand now

For now, the American justice department is still trying to figure out what remedies they will present to a judge next month.

So far being discussed:

Breaking Google into pieces, like a company just for its Chrome browser, and another for its Android smartphone operating system

Requiring Google to make its data available to competitors

Forcing Google to abandon exclusivity deals like the one with Apple that made its search engine the default on Apple devices.

GBP Listings Getting Hijacked… Again

Heads up if you’ve got a Google Business Profile; more reports are circulating that spammers are adding inaccurate content to the profiles, or in some cases reporting that the businesses are closed.

This wave is happening among hotels in particular.

How can they do this?

There’s two ways people can change a Google Business Profile listing without the owner’s permission.

Just hack in with stolen credentials and do what they want

Spam submissions

Spam submissions are the trojan horse

When multiple people suggest changes, like indicating a business is closed or has a new phone number, Google notifies the business owner. The owner can then confirm or deny the suggested changes through their Google Business Profile dashboard.

The problem is that not all business owners check their email that frequently, or the notifications go to spam, or the company is so large there’s no one person responsible for shepherding those requests.

Sometimes, these suggestions are done by regular well-intentioned people. Other times, it’s a business’s competitor.

The current wave

Yesterday, someone on social media posted screenshots showing several businesses inaccurately marked as closed, in what they called a “massive hack wave.”

Be vigilant

So stay vigilant about your business profile and even if you think you’re on top of your email, it’s worth making a weekly to-do to log into your Dashboard and just make sure everything is ship shape.

Meta Shuts Down CrowdTangle Because Of Course They Did

A few years ago, the New York Times journalist Kevin Roose started posting a daily list on Twitter. It was an automated system that would look up the ten most popular Facebook posts each day and would tweet that list out.

Many times, this list was dominated by pages and people on the political right, which gave rise to complaints — justified or not — that Facebook’s algorithm amplified that angle of content.

That list shut down last year after Twitter became X and its API rates went through the roof.

Transparent becomes opaque

But the data itself came from a tool that Meta acquired eight years ago called CrowdTangle.

It was a comprehensive tool that let you track accounts and Pages, track what they posted, monitor engagement trends, and more.

It was a great tool for transparency.

So, it had to die.

Today, Meta announced the shutdown of CrowdTangle effective immediately. The announcement was made, ironically, on Meta’s Transparency Commitment mini-site.

Why? It’s simple. Bad press.

Meta claims it didn’t shut down CrowdTangle to avoid scrutiny, but rather talked about broad technology changes, and regulatory headwinds, and talked about its “rigorous privacy and security standards,” and on and on.

Most experts in the space, though, say it’s clearly about avoiding bad headlines.

Anemic alternatives

Meta says you can still use its Content Library.

Except you probably can’t, since Meta hands access only to a small list of approved researchers only — a list that likely no longer includes journalists or regular people.

Anybody can still use its Ads Library, and that’s a great tool, but it’s not at all what CrowdTangle used to track.

Threads Developing ‘Disappearing Posts’

Meta is said to be developing a new feature for Threads that would allow posts and their replies to disappear after 24 hours. This option could appeal to users concerned about the permanence of their social media content, and it might be a fun format for marketers.

These formats exist on other platforms, of course — Stories usually vanish after a day, and pre-Elon Twitter even experimented with something similar they called Fleets, which was later abandoned. Now, X users need to use a third-party tool to accomplish this.

Eight marketing ideas

No fediverse distribution

A software engineer found the hidden code in Threads’ platform and also discovered that these ephemeral posts would not be shared to the fediverse, the decentralized social network that Threads recently integrated with.

Only in internal testing

A Meta spokesperson said the disappearing posts feature is currently only an internal prototype and not being tested externally.

In Brief

Amazon: Amazon will increase fulfillment fees for sellers using its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service during the 2024 peak season. The company cites higher costs due to inflation and supply chain challenges. The fees will apply from October 15 to January 14, affecting both standard-size and oversize items. more

Threads: Threads has some new analytics tools on their way. Users will be able to view more insights on their posts, such as reach and engagement metrics, and it’ll also be available from the platform's desktop version. more

Indian Government: The Indian government has pulled back on a controversial law that proposed sweeping changes to how social media influencers operate in the country. The law would have required influencers to pre-certify their content through a government regulator before being posted. more

Universal Music Group: UMG has signed a music licensing deal with Meta, allowing users on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to use UMG's music catalog in their posts and stories. more

Huge Hack Contains Nearly Everyone in US/Can/UK

Finally — and I’m not sure why this isn’t being talked about more — a hacker has leaked 2.7 billion records containing personal information of people in the United States, the U.K., and Canada.

The hackers say the data was stolen from an American data repository, and includes names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and physical addresses of nearly every citizen of those countries. For Americans, it’s said to also include their social security numbers.

Data scrapes public sources

The repository, an organization called National Public Data, is believed to scrape public sources to compile individual user profiles for use in background checks, criminal records, and private investigations. The company has not responded to inquiries about the breach.

Leaked for free online

Various threat actors have released partial copies of the data, with the most complete version leaked for free on a hacking forum. The leaked data consists of two text files totaling 277GB, containing plaintext records without encryption.

If there’s any saving grace, it sounds like some of the data is outdated and the social security numbers don’t always line up with the right people.

Still, it’s a unprecedented breach.

The breach — which occured back in April and was largely unreported — has already led to multiple class action lawsuits against the repository.

As is always the case with these breaches, you should monitor credit reports for fraudulent activity and be vigilant against phishing attempts.

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