Does Google Epitomize the New (Corporate) World Order?

Could even Marshall McLuhan or George Orwell have predicted a corporate takeover of our world on the scale The Internet has made possible, reducing not just the worker but the individual in general to a mere pawn in a massive game played by the Multi-Nationals? It’s doubtful. And, have no doubt, Multi-National doesn’t mean International and it doesn’t in any sense presuppose fair play. Rather, it’s all about large corporate organizations in certain wealthy nations fiscally invading as many smaller nations as possible. Colonialism by any other name is still colonialism.

Before I go too far with this, let me give you a better idea of who I am and from whence my comments come. I am an individual. I am not a large corporation or even a small private company. I’ve lived a lot of years and in that time have learned a great deal, but increasingly believe that doesn’t count for a great deal. I’m not a politician or a pundit or a fiscal wizard, but I’ve read a lot about history and politics and, from both sides of the fence, how those in power abuse those who have no power.

By the time I was fifteen years of age, I was reading Mein Kampf and Das Capital and Macchiavelli, and all of the great modern economic and political theorists, socialists, and philosophers. I continued to read these great thinkers throughout my life. Did I learn anything? I really don’t know, but I hope I did. I’ve been accused of being an iconoclast and an anarchist and occasionally, incorrectly, of being dishonest.

To quote television’s The Prisoner when faced with an intolerable and dehumanizing situation, “I am not a number. I am a free man.”

Recently, I had a run-in with the new corporate megalith Google. Now, I’ve had disagreements in the past with other large corporations and I have friends who’ve encountered corporate ire, so this is not new to me or to our society. In fact, over the past fifty years, I’ve read many tales of corporate Goliaths running roughshod over individual Davids who dare stand up to them. I’m going to write about my experience with Google not because this is an unique circumstance but because it is not and so will serve as an example of the widespread contemporary corporate disregard by multi-nationals of the humanity of the individual man and woman.

As some readers will know, I write reviews of music, movies, and other areas of the arts. I am also an independent artist writing poetry and songs, doing artistic photography, and recording music with my band. Like most artists I know, I’ve never really made any money from my art. On the other hand, before a series of computer revolutions eliminated the need for most writing tasks, I once made a good living writing, editing, and consulting.

Now I make my living in another field and publish my own reviews and articles online through my personal blog and, where appropriate, on Blog Critics Magazine. To maintain server space and related services, this publication process costs me a small amount of money, which I don’t mind spending.

Google AdSense is a supposedly democratic program where advertisements can be added to one or more web pages and the owner of these pages gets paid a fee based on the number of times visitors click on the links to learn what the product advertised has to offer. Google AdWords is an even more supposedly democratic program where someone with a product to advertise can place advertisements on one or more web pages and pays a fee based on the number clicks by visitors.

I decided to try Google AdSense to see if this would be a way to support my reviews blog. I decided to try Google AdWords to see if this would be a way to sell my band’s latest music CD. Previously, I had thought of Google as an international, certainly multi-national, corporation. It quickly became clear that Google discourages participation by individuals, small companies, and those who are not wholly based in the United States.

I first applied for participation in Google AdSense.

I live in Canada. My bank is in the United States, a business decision. Google refused to deposit payments in my American bank because I am a “foreigner” and they repeatedly gave that as the reason. They went so far as to suggest that I might be trying to defraud their program because I have a bank account in a country not my own. Wait a minute. Isn’t America Google’s country? And, anyway, although my bank is in the United States, it’s owned by a Canadian bank [and, in correspondence, Google consistently refers to it as a "foreign" bank]. After a long correspondence, in which Google was totally unwilling to find a middle ground, I agreed that Google would mail me a cheque from the United States to Canada which I would then mail back to my bank in the United States. I placed Google AdSense links on a number of my pages.

I then applied for Google AdWords.

Google refused to accept payments from me through my “foreign” bank in the United States, which happens to be where the U.S. dollars reside with which I would pay their fees. We’re still in negotiations about that one. So far, it doesn’t look good. My advertisement for my band’s CD still has not been placed.

Now Google has cancelled my AdSense account. Once again, Google is accusing me of trying to defraud their program. This is patently not true, and I have some doubts it’s the true reason I’ve been cancelled. As I browse the World Wide Web, I find dozens of large American online organizations routinely committing the same transgressions of which I’ve been accused, and more, yet never being cancelled. And I see many smaller users cancelled for reasons I can’t discern. What is the logic behind this inequity?

Google lists some very specific reasons that an AdSense account can be cancelled.

A publisher’s site may not have invalid clicks or impressions on any ad(s), including but not limited to clicks and/or impressions generated by: a publisher on his own web pages; a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads; automated clicking programs or any other deceptive software; a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason.

In my case, while I had placed the Google links on a variety of my pages, certain specific pages were dedicated to support my reviews blog and indirectly the music CD. These support pages also included links to PayPal to make donations, links to CD Baby to listen to music and buy the new CD or any of three others, and other pertinent links. I had sent e-mails and made web page mentions for people to go to these pages and “click on links” to support my reviews blog. This did not seem to contravene Google’s rules. I also placed the words “sponsored links” above some, but not all, of the Google links. This also did not seem to contravene Google’s rules. Yet, in very short order, Google sent me an e-mail telling me that they were immediately cancelling my account because I was defrauding their program. I was not. There was no warning, no request to change my approach. I was out. Period. I felt like Saddam, hustled through a kangaroo court to my death in the Google marketplace.

Besides my own websites and blog, I maintain a presence on several larger “community” sites, many of which are also members of Google AdSense. Every one of these large sites breaks at least one and usually two or three of the Google rules listed above. Every one of them is a large corporate entity. Every one of them is American. None of them gets cancelled. As just one example, and not to point a finger because they are just one of many, check out MySpace. MySpace posts a large number of Google Adsense links. They prominently box these links between coloured bars and include the words “Sponsored Links” above the links. They modify the code/layout by removing all Google identification, including two Google slugs that routinely appear below the ads. Many larger, American sites also follow this practice of changing Google Adsense ads and verbally and visually promoting clicks, apparently with impunity from cancellation by Google. Not so the little guy. Not so the non-American.

The question still remains whether Google will allow me to advertise my band’s CD (which, if this is relevant and it may be, also includes a number of anti-war tracks) using Google AdWords. It will be interesting to find out.

Is this all about me? No. Is it all about Google? No. The question is whether America, not just on the military field but also on a financial and corporate basis is still indulging in 19th Century Jingoism and Imperialism. For me, the answer is becoming clear.

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