ABP (AdblockPlus) sucks and I will prove it...

[Aractus]

Google 2005 (link):

- Biased results? No way. Providing great search is the core of what we do. Business partnerships will never compromise the integrity or objectivity of our search results. If a partner's page ranks high, it's because they have a good answer to your search, not because of their business relationship with us.

Broken promise.

- There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.

Broken promise. Besides the example I gave you when searching for "buy windows 8.1" which brings up a huge banner of sponsored products, there are plenty of other examples too. I mean they play 45 second "unskipable" (but not unblockable) ads on Youtube! From October last year to around March this year Google ran banner ads like this one:



And finally,

Our service and our business works because of you - our users. You're important to us and something that we think about all the time -- as we build new products, negotiate deals, and think about what our future holds.

This is exactly the problem. Google does not put the customer first any more. Maybe back in 2005 they did, but not now. I've already explained how duplicating the top result as an ad is not putting the search-customer first, nor the advertising-customer first - it's only putting themselves first.

A successful business model should always be built upon the principle of putting the customer first. If they don't then they will put themselves into the same situation as Apple and have 15 years or more of evidence about their behaviour recorded and scrutinised to be forever read online:

Well, Apple called me back today and said two things:

1. They would not assist me further with the hardware faults

2. My rights were limited to the one year warranty, and the statutory warranty was not relevant

Guess it is bunk.

So I called ACCC. They said I do have rights, but they are not interested in acting on behalf of individuals. They said to go to fair trading NSW, then small claims court. They also said if enough people complain about misleading information about statutory warranties, they will act in general, but not on behalf of individuals.

The friends of mine who used to be die-hard Apple fans are now pretty much all Apple haters, and all it had to do with was how Apple treated their customers - not even abiding by Australian law and giving their customers a fair go for their statutory rights. Apple rapes and pillages and doesn't pay their taxes in Australia.

The same is true for Google. If you don't put your customers first sooner or later it catches up with you.