Google releases 2010 edition of Monopoly.

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“Go Directly to page 1, do not pass go, oh, and that’ll be $25000″

Google have just announced they are going to create their own Search Engine Optimization division.

In late March 2010, rumors were circulating that search engine giant Google was preparing to launch its own SEO (search engine optimization) division. In early April, Google confirmed the rumors and unveiled a plan to open the SEO agency as early as May. Apparently, this project had been in the pipeline for quite some time and Google had clearly done an excellent job of keeping it secret.

Let’s look at how we got here in the first place.

Copied from Google’s official Blogspot page from a post dated March 2008 (after their acquisition of Doubleclick -an SEO and fully web integrated marketing company)

It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google’s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party.

So what happened?

An article by Serena Shapero, Associate Editor of Newswire suggests Google will be risking anti-trust violations by opening an SEO firm of its own:

Now, Google is assembling a Google SEO team of approximately 100 employees. The company professes that their intentions are noble. Google wants to set the standard for an industry that outsiders so often criticize. Google SEO promises to use only the most ethical practices to increase a client’s PageRank™, and they promise to do it without adding to the spam glut that currently exists on the Internet. However, the fact remains that Google SEO will be the only SEO agency in the world that can guarantee first page rankings because they are the only company that will have access to the algorithm that dictates it.

In addition, early estimates place the cost of this service in the neighborhood of $25,000 per month. Not only does Google have a monopoly on the search engine optimization, they will be fostering an environment of exclusivity. Google will cripple the thousands of small Internet business vying for your attention. That is not to say that it is currently easy for small business but at least they have the opportunity.

Just to remind us what the 2010 edition of ‘Monopoly’ looks like…

• In February and March of 2010, according to the San Francisco Business Times, Google captured at least 70% of U.S. searches alone.

• Now if we were to factor in the world market, conservative estimates have Google dominating by serving 80% of the total search market.

SEO companies all over the world are never 100% sure the exact algorithms that Google use to determine exactly what appears where in the Search Results – the only one’s that know for sure – are…guess who?

You got it… Google themselves.

Prior to Google, the popular search engines ranked pages based simply on how often the search term occurred in that page. Google then devised an algorithm that analyzes the human-generated links pointing to the page. (Google’s patented PageRank™ algorithm.) Now its important to stress that nobody outside of Google understands how the algorithm works.

Now, Google is assembling an SEO team of approximately 100 employees. And we can employ their SEO services.  The cost?

$25,000 per month. (no, I did not accidentally add a zero or misplace the comma… sorry)

But aside from the astronomical costs, the fact remains that Google SEO will be the only SEO agency in the world that can guarantee first page rankings — because they are the only company that will have access to the algorithm that dictates it.

A company that organize the Results – are now offering a service for $25,000/month – to get you IN the Results…. that they control!!

The 2010 Edition of Googlopoly is certainly going to be expensive to win – ‘bags being the banker!’

What are your thoughts on this?

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Tagged as: Google, monopoly, pagerank, SEO