Has Google lost the plot?

That is the question I am asking myself. This all started last night, well yesterday late as a man on the table next to me was complaining on the phone. He is a business man from South Canada (which in 2022 was still known as the United States of America). He was complaining as he wanted to buy something nice for his little girl (she just graduated, so she couldn’t be that little). He wanted to buy something local, but he could not do so as he was here (aka Sydney, Australia). The idea was laughable, but there you have it. 

So I needed to take a look at that, I understand what is going on, but have you caught on? So I wanted to be naughty (as I tend to be), so I looked for “Toronto Canada Engagement rings platinum” just in case I get the ‘drop’ on a certain person I know (it is not Laura Vandervoort). And guess what, all the top spots were taken by Garan Jewellers, in Victoria. Yup none of them were in Canada (or Toronto for that matter). And it got to be worse. There was one from a place called Etsy. So when I went there, I had the ability to Switch to Canada and Canadian dollars, or so I thought, but when I pressed ‘save’ the option remained in the true blue Australian numbers, the adjustment was not possible. Yet when I went to etsy.ca I was able to change it.

This is not a nice story, this accusation has more than merit. You see for all the things we try to explain away the one part that is overlooked is “The wish of the Customer”, the customer wanted a Canadian shop, with an optional engagement ring. But that is not where the advertisement money was, was it and more important neither show what the customer wanted. “Toronto Canada Engagement rings platinum” Others decided what the person wanted, other people set the stage of what he sought, but he never wanted that did he? He wanted something simple and it showed the one flaw Google has had for too long, the lack of enforced localisation. It does not sell advertisement, and in this case it actually does not help the seeker one bit. So you tell me, did Google lose the plot?

I am now and have for the longest time been pro-Google, yet I believe that this one, they got wrong and if I hear that this applies to one traveller stuck in a non South Canadian place, how many others face this setting? You think this is funny and yes to some degree it is, but when the fullness of 5G hits us, when Meta is everywhere. What happens to the localised voices? Will they ever be heard again? We think they will, but will they? When the advertisement bid and the localisation get in each other’s way? Bid will outreach localisation and that is something I warned some people about for several years. I merely did not expect to end up being that correct. So in this the question remains, has Google lost the plot? You tell me, I am not certain at this point.