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Some Businesses at Mercy Of Google See Hope in Bid
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VanBoskirk said some smaller online firms and retailers often get frustrated with Google's process for ranking pages for search results because the process seems to change arbitrarily.
"But working with Google is still the only way to reach the largest audience," either through search or with advertising, she said. "It's the Catch-22 of Google."
That is precisely Davies's bind.
"I wouldn't mind trying other [ad-search companies], but Google's the biggest player out there with the biggest pool of advertisers, which makes it very appealing," Davies said. He's had lackluster results using Microsoft and Yahoo. "I just can't bring in the same amount of income," he said.
Some Web entrepreneurs complain that some of Google's policies restrict their business in other ways.
Jerry McLaughlin, chief executive of Branders.com in San Mateo, Calif., which sells promotional products, pays to list his company with Google AdWords to drive customers to the site. But Google doesn't allow a company to advertise similar products in the same search. As a result, McLaughlin said he has to choose which of his 14 brands to advertise, like his site for watches and his site for clocks, for example, because he cannot advertise both.
He said he has also decided against acquiring companies that have similar content to his current properties because it could adversely affect his Google standings.
"I can't take the risk of more or less disappearing from Google, so I have to factor it into all of my business decisions," he said.
Digg.com, the well-known Web site that ranks articles by their popularity, used to rely on Google's Adsense but recently agreed to let Microsoft sell ads across its site.
"We could get a much better deal by entering into a contract with Microsoft, which has the size and reach" to manage our site, said Jay Adelson, chief executive of Digg.com. "We couldn't get that from Google."
While the Microsoft-Yahoo deal could create a powerful online ad network for brand marketers, it most likely would not displace Google's dominance in search, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, a research firm that follows Microsoft's strategy.
"There are a lot of other ad networks out there," he said. "But when it comes to search, Google, can't be ignored."
