Google Ads Monopolistic Dark Patterns

Google was once my favorite company when it was still run by its founders and genuinely followed the “don’t be evil” policy.


Now everything it does has turned into dark patterns. Google’s #1 revenue generator Ads (formerly AdWords) now uses dark patterns to trick advertisers into spending more. For example, most of the recommendations make a user’s campaign spend more money while not getting results. Many unwary users ignore these recommendations without realizing that Google added a setting that by default is on that automatically implements all of Google’s recommendations after 14 days of wait time. These recommendations are implemented without the users consent or even knowledge. Even if a user turns off that setting, the recommendations appear everywhere throughout the interface with enticing “Apply All” buttons that are easily clicked on accidentally.

Once Google obtained a monopoly position, it became evil.

Published by

Joel Gross

Joel Gross is the CEO of Coalition Technologies.