Viewpoint | Is Google the right advisor for making your investments decisions?

Amit Trivedi

These days, when you listen to radio, you will invariably come across an ad by Google, which starts with somebody speaking something very, very fast. It's like somebody is blabbering and then comes a voiceover which says “Kuchhh samajh aaya? Nahin? Toh apna paisa invest karne se pehle apna samay Google App mein invest kariye.”

Now there are a couple of takeaways from this. Basically, Google is trying to promote its search engine for the purpose of finding information before you make any investment decision. And that's where these observations are important. Critical.

Number one, the blabber with which the advertisement begins with is a take on the old version of the mutual fund disclaimer. “Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks, please read the scheme related documents carefully before investing.”

A few years ago, the mutual fund ads used to carry this sentence spoken very, very fast; in a manner that was totally beyond anybody to understand. However, SEBI came out with regulation that prescribes the speed at which these lines can be spoken. And that SEBI regulation ensures that today when the disclaimer is spoken in any mutual fund advertisement, any listener would be able to understand that line.

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Amit Trivedi

Author & Founder|Karmayog Knowledge Academy

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So what does that mean? That only means that Google is using a very, very, very old piece of information in an advertisement in today's time. And that is precisely risk you run of what you get when you search on Google.

You don't know whether the information you got from Google is current or outdated. In that case, can you really rely on the Google search results to take your decisions? Are the search results enough?

In fact, the advertisement indicates the answer, if you read carefully between the lines. It further says, “Toh apna paisa invest karne se pehle apna samay Google App mein invest kariye aur saari jaankaari paiye …”

Read it carefully, it says “saari jaankaari” and not “sahi jaankaari”. What you get may be all the information that is there in the world, but you cannot be sure if it is true. If you do not know the subject, and that you are also not sure of the source of your information, should you act by yourself? Think about it. Be careful when you fall prey to this campaign by Google.

Number two, please remember that Google is a search engine and not a research engine. Understand that difference very, very clearly. This means you will be able to get a lot of information based on the results of your searches, but then you will have to do your own research to arrive at any conclusion. Or you may be better off taking professional help.

The author runs Karmayog Knowledge Academy. The views expressed here are his personal views.