Mandelson’s Move to Google Ignores UK’s Small Businesses
It’s ironic that Lord Mandelson’s move to ask Google to create free websites for small businesses is in fact going to put many small UK businesses in jeopardy. There already exists many small UK based web development firms who were overlooked in this new initiative.
So instead of asking these businesses to help create websites for other UK businesses, they asked Google - who don’t pay a single penny in UK taxes - to do the job. And to top it off, it’s tax payer money that’s going to fund the whole initiative!
Up to 100,000 businesses will essentially get a free website from Google including even a free .co.uk website address. Many say this is unfair competition for other website development companies as they have to pay for such things as domains and hosting. How are UK website development companies supposed to compete with a free alternative?
It will be very interesting to see the quality of these sites, and also the kind of support Google and BT can offer. After all, a website can be a complete business to someone (or many people) so detailed support is essential.
Also will Google use their unfair advantage with their search engine and rank these sites higher? Or give them a ton of free Google Adword vouchers? These kinds of things should raise the eyebrows of EU politicians (whose eyebrows are already raised about Google!). So when you hear about Google offering free websites to UK businesses, consider the ramifications of such an offer.
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