| Yes, they are. In Chrome and firefox, if google decides your website isn't up to scratch for some random reason, then visitors will see a big scary red warning and be turned away. Yes, in theory you could get people to use a browser that doesn't incorporate Google censorship, but that's becoming a big ask. If your website does become blacklisted by Google, good luck finding out why. They won't tell you, and will instead make you click on a "request review" button a million times while you change things to see if it floats their boat. Isn't it slightly worrying to have the entity who decides if websites are "safe" or not, also have a monopoly on online advertising? What's to stop them blacklisting sites that use competitors advertising? They could claim that it benefits the users some how, whilst squashing any hint of competition. Google has become the absolute gatekeeper, and (To me at least) it's a very very sad state of affairs. The www used to be free and open. |
There is naturally a tradeoff between the value of this information for avoiding dangerous sites, and the risk that Google might be abusing the power that goes with its role in publishing it. At the moment users are mostly deciding that the risk is worth it.
If Google becomes obviously abusive then users will have to re-assess that equation. But it's the users' decision to make; not ours.