As I’ve been thinking on the Vivint situation (they were delisted by Google), I was reminded of the fact that Google recently purchased Nest, a home automation company. Nest is one of the biggest competitor of . . . You guessed it, Vivint, the home automation company.

While being delisted by Google won’t necessarily hurt Vivint’s security and solar products. It will most certainly hurt their home automation division. You see, solar and security are sold door to door, whereas the play for home automation is to get into retail.

This opens up a can of worms for Google. If they are stepping out of the search arena and entering other industries, who is there to police them when it comes to delisting competitors of companies they have interests in.

This also comes on the heels of Google Capital launching. Which means that Google’s interest in other companies will only continue to increase (in addition to Google Ventures’ existing stakes). As they invest in hundreds of companies, who will be there to ensure that the competitors of those companies aren’t fighting an uphill battle to be ranked on Google.

It was stated by Google Capital that the companies they invest in will have access to many aspects of Google. Including their technology. *read search technology. They could potentially be given a look behind the hallowed curtain of Google’s search algorithm. If this were to happen, the companies would immediately have an advantage over their competitors in the digital marketing space.

Having worked in the industry for 10 years, I can tell you that NO ONE gets insider information, or at least that’s what we’re told.

But back to my first question, who is policing Google? Who is ensuring that Google isn’t giving the companies they invest in the information they need to receive an edge on their competitors?

I’m not sure how this will shake out. But one thing is for sure, I hope that Google doesn’t buy one of my competitors . . . It’s hard enough competing with them as it stands.

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