Page 2 - Google owns a seo company !!!

The article throws the phrase "conflict of interest" around as if Google is actually intending to do something unethical with Performics. SEO is highly profitable and maybe Google just wants the profit.

It's also possible that they put their algorithm updates, etc. to the test with their own SEO company, and vice-versa.

In short I don't see anything wrong with this.

You know, you might actually have something there. What if Google had a team of professional SEOs beat on and try to subvert any changes to its algorithm before rolling it out? They could stay perhaps a half-step ahead of the rest of the SEOs out there. Just a thought.

I read the article and found it pretty interesting.

Also the point you raised was very interesting as well.

because there is nothing wrong with this...
so your comparing googles search engine profits to the measely salary of an seo and then saying that google wants the seo money as well becasue they are THAT greedy? hard to believe, and they "own" the seo company but they dont touch it, it "hapens" to be part of a much larger purchase. im sure if google even cared, which they dont, that they would just sell it off real quick if people kept complaining. But since there is no REAL conflict of interest, there IS no real problem, basically google search engineers arent sitting at the seo company saying do this dont do that, 2 completely seperate companies, 2 completely different sets of employees, 2 completely different sets of management and leaders. so please stop posting in this thread, if you read the article you would have read that there is no real "conflict" whatsoever. and people are just complaining because they cant rank in google thus the simple explanation is to blame it on someone else, but everyone entitled to their own opinion

^That is what I was saying, there's no conflict of interest and there shouldn't be but the article makes it seem like there is. More than anything I just wanted to point out how sensationalistc the article is, nothing else. Not even saying anything about Google's actions. I'm not sure what you're getting so worked up about.

Also, I didn't say Google definitely wants the profit because no one knows for sure, that's why I said "maybe".

... not worked up at all this is just how I write, and im assuming the whole articles point is to stir up the seo world and piss people off when there is no real conflict anyway, and it obviously worked, but it wasnt a personal attack or anything, and I apologize if it seemed like it was, again this is just how i write.

really, and how they perform ranking if they owned seo cmpny???

That's alright, don't worry about it : ) Thanks for clarifying. I just really dislike articles like that, making far-fetched assumptions to attack a company probably because they can't get what they want.

I wonder how much salary they can give to SEO specialist!

This is a great post.

Remember, Google is a publically traded company now, so if you really care just look it up in their financials, but Cshermgo is probably right, they probably don't bring in very much revenue.

Not to mention the price gouging that happens everyday with Adwords is a much bigger issue, and would've made a much better story...

If they are keeping the SEO company they probably have to implement some kind of 'chinese walls' to avoid communication between the SEO's and other departments.

Big banks have these walls for example, to prevent people working with mergers, acquisitions etc from talking to people buying and selling shares for a profit within the same company.

It would of course not be to any other SEO's benfit if one SEO company knew all the developments that were going on at Google and had access to their view on penalties, algorithms or even software.

Yeah I can't see them trying to defend themselves from that without coming out looking bad in some way

Maybe I can put a different spin on this that you might find interesting. Suppose Google were to "optimize" clients from doubleclick through some sort of PPC campaign that ranks specific ads in other search engines. When these "optimized" ads receive top rankings they will inevitably generate clicks which in turn Google will charge the client on a PPC basis. I guess you could call it organic PPC placement. I have been tracking specifically in MSN for the phrase "Manhattan Luxury Condos" a website?,page?, redirect? or whatever it is ranking in the top 5. This is a redirect through doubleclicks advertising server which will deliver you to a specific website. Through tracking this, the actual landing site changes from time to time. This is not the only example that I have found. It looks like something that is being tested in certain markets. Now I may be way off base here, but it is certainly food for thought. Let me know what you think. Go to msn and search that phrase.