Google actively opposes repair shops that want to advertise on the search engine. Google places itself with its market power against free repair possibilities.
Of course, this is not censorship at all that yet, but it’s a clear indication that Google is partially abusing its market power and thus suppressing information for the end user. As we have already stated here, Google does not allow ads to be placed for the repair of devices of a certain brand that are being repaired by an independent repair shop which is not officially authorized by that brand. Many repairers experience that their advertisements on Google are suppressed because they repair Macs and iPhones, for example, but are independent of Apple.
Why does Google suppress ads from independent repair shops?
Why Google does this remains unclear. After all, the business model of Google is to sell advertising space. Why ads are suddenly sorted out (apart from illegal things) is surprising. Perhaps the brand owners themselves have their fingers in the game and put Google under pressure. Google, for example, pays a lot of money to be the search engine on Apple devices. Perhaps Apple is now also putting pressure on Google to stop advertising from repair shops.
If you now think that this behavior is harmful to freedom of speech, competition, your wallet and the planet, you have several options.
- 1. If you have something to repair, have a look at our upkeep page and look for a free repair shop. They can often repair things for a fraction of the cost of an official repair shop. Especially motherboards – this is important if you need to back up your data.
- 2. If you are a repair shop, write us, we will be happy to list you on our Upkeep page.
- 3. If you are a repair shop, fill out this survey from repair.org, which is also supported by ifixit. Google’s attempts to prevent repairs take place worldwide.
- 4. Stop using Google. Now is the time that Google starts to surpress things good for us and imagines to be able to decide what is right and what is wrong. However, we are fans of free speech and have long since switched to DuckDuckGo as a better search engine.
- 5. Sign this petition for a free repair option for devices if you are in Germany, as is the case with cars. If you are in the USA, support repair.org.
So as usual, don’t necessarily believe everything the big companies say and if they behave in the wrong way just use the products and services elsewhere. The question also arises: if Google starts suppressing ads now, when will the repair shops be completely removed from the index? And who is next? So if you are dependent on Google (like probably everyone) it’s probably best if you fight back with us right away.
