By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –Follow me on X.

Readers, I need your help once again. Since I last communicated with you, Google’s Search algorithm has reverted back to removing or dropping thousands of small, independent publishers from its rankings. Consequently, many sites, including this one, have lost up to 90 percent of their web traffic.  (The sites now rank far below unverified message boards, spam sites and companies such as Reddit which have struck marketing deals with Google. This means far fewer potential readers see our published articles.)

This has caused our ad revenue, which is 99 percent of our total income, to plummet as well.

There is no indication that Google will change its Search formulas and allow for the Open Web to return. And, as a one-person publisher, I cannot afford to strike a marketing deal with Google or invest in other expensive initiatives that might change our rankings.

To make matters worse, Google has a monopoly over Search with anywhere between 80 and 90 percent of searches coming from the company. If Google wants to screw you, it’s quite easy for them to do so. They literally have the power to decide which publications will succeed and which ones will fail. 

This is not me saying this. This is the federal government which recently won a ruling declaring Google to be a monopoly and engaging in unfair tactics to preserve that monopoly. The feds are considering proposals to force Google to change its ways but it could be years of appeals before anything substantial will happen.

I cannot afford to wait years, or even months. So I am appealing to you to help our site by making a small contribution.

I am using the site, Buy Me a Coffee, which allows you to make a donation from $5 to $25. You can make your contribution here. Any donation would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

As many longtime readers know, I have been providing news and analysis on the TV technology scene for three decades, and more than two decades at TVPredictions.com and now TVAnswerman.com. I hope to continue that coverage indefinitely, but I really need your help.

Once again, here’s the page where you can make a small contribution. Many thanks and happy viewing.

Phillip Swann
Editor and publisher, TVAnswerman.com

Please support TVAnswerman.com by going to the ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ donation site here. Thanks!