According to the information obtained and analyzed by Politico, Microsoft and Google wouldn’t hesitate to spam competing search engines with unwanted ads. These low-value advertisements, assimilated to spam, appear in the results, to the detriment of the interesting advertisements, of higher values, which are awarded by the search engines of the two firms.
Bing and Google keep high-value ads to each other
An advertisement is said to be of low value when it appears in the search results without having any real links with the query typed in the search engine. The user then finds himself with an ad that contradicts what he is really looking for and which could, if he clicks, redirect him to a less relevant ad. We assimilate these advertisements as spam, like unwanted mail that we can receive in our mailbox.
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By having these low-value advertisements end up in competing search engines like Qwant, Ecosia, or DuckDuckGo, Bing, and Google, Microsoft’s and the Mountain View firm’s search engines could benefit. Indeed, users and advertisers could abandon these search engines in favor of those of the two American giants, because they are more interesting for them.
This accusation can be put in parallel with the Google Shopping case, which had earned Google a fine of 2.4 billion euros in 2017. The final decision was confirmed in November 2021. The company had abused its position dominant within thirteen countries of the European Economic Area to promote its product comparator on its search engine to the detriment of other competing operators. According to PriceRunner, the problem with Google Shopping has not been completely resolved. She filed a complaint in February 2022 and is claiming 2.1 billion euros in damages.
The search engine market strongly dominated by Google and Microsoft
According to estimates, Google holds nearly 90% of the search engine market for 600 billion indexed web pages. For its part, Bing holds 7% of the market and indexes between 100 and 200 billion web pages. Thanks to this position, the two companies can enter into agreements with other competing search engines. Thus, DuckDuckGo uses the Microsoft Advertising platform for its advertisements and users are therefore subject to Microsoft’s data collection policies. Other search engines work this way, whether with Microsoft or Google.
For Google, ads (low or high value) registered with its partners may appear on its search engine as well as on other search engines. The firm states that it has algorithms in place that control the types of ads served “. On the other hand, Qwant, a partner with Microsoft, has confirmed the negative impact that these unwanted ads can have on the user experience.