December 20, 2007
Google Is The New Microsoft
First, they diversified into every online area possible. Then they slapped down anyone who dared monetize their sites or blogs with something other than their own Adsense program. Recently, they began their maneuver to knock Wikipedia from the top of their search results by rolling out Knols, which is an attempt to get US to provide content so they can make more money by keeping all of us within Google’s safe little play yard.
And now? Following right along in Microsoft’s footprints, Google’s very own Adsense has been compromised by a Trojan. BitDefender is calling this Trojan.Qhost.WU and explains that it redirects calls meant for Google to a different server which then displays ads from someone other than Google. For webmasters, this means we can lose money. For visitors to our sites, this means that clicking on one of these ads can very likely infect your computer or otherwise compromise your security, which is likely since this is all being done with malicious code.
I realize that some think I’m crazy for making a connection between Google’s evil and Microsoft’s evil. This latest breaking news is just one more similarity. Google is now being targeted, just as Microsoft has been in the past. I wonder if this will be enough to open the eyes of Matt Cutts and his Googly crew.
Probably not.
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1) Diversity is simply good business. Particularly when 90% of your services are given away absolutely free.
2) Much as I’m opposed to the smackdown, you’re completely mis-characterizing it here. They didn’t smack down sites that “dared monetize their sites or blogs with something other than their own Adsense program”. They smacked sites that sold PR by not using nofollow tags. Wher’s the big uproar from Bidvertiser and Adknowledge publishers? There isn’t one, because their advertising models use javascript (like Adsense) that don’t pass PR.
3) Looking in your sidebar I see links to BlogCatalog, SpicyPage, Blogapedia, and more. All of thees sites profit from your content as well. As does Yahoo! and any other search engine. Not to mention wikipedia, and any other wiki or forum that you may participate in. Do you have a MySpace page? Same thing. I fail to see how knols is any different in this regard.
4) Are you really blaming Google because someone figured out a way to exploit their software? Software has holes, hackers find and exploit them. That’s just the way it is. If Google didn’t release a product or service until it was 100% secure it would never be released. For that matter, neither would the internet itself. Its not like Google planted the Trojan themselves.
Microsoft was evil because they made shoddy products and then did everything they could to force them onto every computer sold. This meant that if you wanted a computer you were nearly required to pay for a Microsoft product whether you wanted it or not. Google doesn’t force anything on anyone and gives away the bulk of their products. I fail to see the analogy.
Very well said!
Google is simply not putting a smackdown on sites that “dared monetize …” There are many, many, many sites that monetized to high heaven, but used javascript or nofollow links, and avoided the pain. This has been very clearly spelled out in Google’s guidelines for free admission to their index for years now.
That Google is working to take at least some of the influence of big money - link buying, etc - out of their serps, this is in the small web site’s best interest. It’s also in the interest of the hundreds of millions of people who search the web every day. It’s a very small few ( link brokers ) who are hurt by a pretty rational policy.
When I built my first website in 1996, I learned to code html by hand, not with a wysiwyg editor. I learned the W3C standard and that did not include the nofollow tag. In fact, the W3C standard does not include the nofollow tag NOW. Google made it up to accommodate their now inferior algorithm. They are wrong to ask ME to do their work for them. They should figure out a way to gather all relevent information without insisting that I help them.
And you are correct that some site monetize but were not rankspanked. That’s not because of nofollow or javascript; it’s because they’re the “A-listers” or big boys who could conceivably hurt Google in the long run.
If Google wants the cyberworld to believe that their only concern is relevant search results, they need to get out of the advertising business altogether.
Your W3C argument loses a lot of weight when one realizes that HTML 4.01 was released more than 5 years before nofollow was implemented. How could it be included if it was yet to be conceived? On the other hand, it is included in the draft versions of HTML 5.0 - http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/#link-type9
And Google isn’t insisting that you help them. You (apparently) have refused and your site remains intact. You, however, are insisting that they help you by giving you a PR despite your refusal to play by its rules.
As for your assertion that only “A-listers” went unscathed that’s simply wrong. I personally run over a dozen different websites. Not one of them has a PR higher than 3 so their hardly A-listers, but only one was smacked down.
Of course there’s no mention of a nofollow tag in the W3C spec; there is no nofollow tag. It’s a value that’s allowed in the rel[ationship] attribute of an anchor tag.
That might sound like nitpicking, and ordinarily it would be … but when claim Google is pushing an “inferior algorithm” based on a misunderstanding of markup … it sort of takes the wind out of your sails.
I think that Google is starting to forget their “Do no evil” company motto (which I am not sure if that even still exists).
I love a lot of the stuff they have done. They have come up with tons of great ideas. From Google Docs to Gmail to Analytics, etc. I use it all and it’s awesome. It also sounds like it would be one of the best places to work at.
Unfortunately they are starting to forget the little people. They are slowly turning to the dark side like microsoft did.
Give credit where credit’s due:
GDocs isn’t all Google’s work. The word processor is Writely’s work. Goog just bought into ‘em to get it. Then they moved on to spreadsheets, etc.
Goog bought into YouTube. Before that, no-one seemed to really focus on what’s uploaded there. Now, so much gets knocked down for content’s sake.
I am sorry it will effect others, but I hope it takes their data centers down. Can you tell I am bitter about the PR drop? LOL
All the best to you and your family this season.
Aahz - Every indication is that the PR penalty is on visible PR, not SERPs. If Google were truly worried about the “purity” of their search results, they would be penalizing the SERPs of buys and sellers of text links. Instead, they chose to remove the visible metric used by most advertisers to determine the value of individual websites. In itself this would not be an evil thing, but Google sells the top 3 spots in a search. Do a search for “Mortgage” to see what I am talking about. Now, the PR penalty becomes an anti-competitive tactic.
For those that argue that visible PR is Google’s to do with as they please, and Google’s search results are theirs to do with as they please, consider that Microsoft forced OEMs to exclude Netscape on PCs sold with the Windows OS, and were prosecuted under anti-trust laws. Microsoft invested billions over the course of 20 years in their OS and applications. If MSFT isn’t allowed to force the exclusion of competitive products, Google should not be permitted to deny publishers and advertisers the ability to work together to improve their SERPs.
This is where the analogy between GOOG and MSFT lies.
I don’t think the analogy is an accurate one, though, Tim. As you say, MSFT forced OEMs to exclude Netscape. Google has not forced anyone to do anything and certainly hasn’t forced any exclusions.
I totally agree this has nothing to do with the purity of their searches (see my evidence here), but it’s also not a swipe against non-Adsense users as the original post states. Only sites that pass PR in their paid links got hit. Those that were inadvertently hit have had their PR reinstated. The sponsored links above the SERPs were not effected in any way by this action and they don’t pass PR.
Interesting comparison that goes to show how corporations might start out with good intentions, but at some point during their rise, they concentrate and lose focus of the beauty that got them there, and only see the money involved.
Meh, I personally like google. And don’t really think they did anything that bad. But I guess everyone has their opinion.
I see nothing inherently evil about Google. shutting down people for not choosing to use no follow seems to be not happening.
Google also seems to be one of the best jobs in the country, in fact in the world !
James
To be specific, Techcrunch does not use nofollow when listing their sponsors in a post. They were not slapped.
I have sites that do not do paid posts or paid anything else. They have PR.
My other blog that did get stripped of PR has posts going back over 7 years and a static area that goes back 6 years. Everything there is just as relevant now as it was before I monetized my site.
As a user, if I want to search for something like dandelion tattoo or DIY remodeling I’d hope to get sites like mine. Hopefully, Google won’t remove me from their index after taking my PR. If they do that, they’re stripping their results page of relevant information.
Also, what makes Google think that webmasters are all aware of nofollow and will use it? What happens to their results if they don’t crawl sites that don’t use nofollow, for whatever reason? Google the search engine needs to go back to crawling sites for relevant information. Stop telling webmasters and bloggers how to code. And yes, they are telling us, or else they’ll erase us from the eyes of the world. We gave them that power and now they’re abusing it.
And that is what this is all about. Google’s rankspank does nothing to make search results better. If they de-index sites they’ve spanked, they’ll lose results and that can’t be good for them.
Right, it’s a value, not a tag. Are you a Virgo? Virgos are nitpickers, you know.
And no, that doesn’t take the wind out of my sails at all. Every system gets gamed so the system has to be revised. Instead of revising, Google wants us to revise. No thanks. They took my page rank but I’m still relevant for the same terms that I have been since 2000. (On my other site.) A paid post here and there doesn’t negate the relevance of all the other information on my sites. Shame on Google for trying to strong arm the little guys. That’s what they’re doing and why I no longer respect the company. And yes, I’d call them evil, even.
Marisa, I was panicked in 07 waiting to see if i earned a page rank..I hope during this year I am able to understand all of the comments regarding your post. Sounds like there are some strong opinions, and of course, grammology doesn’t understand them yet. From a purely selfish point of view…as a novice, with little education in blogs and how they work..I treasure that I was able to give opinions this year and grow some of my abilities by surfing the net..
Even though I’m a 61 year old grandma…selling commercial real estate for a living..this as been one of my most rewarding efforts.. I pray, once my surgery is over, I will be able to take some courses and learn more about this wonderful place which has given me a voice on my blog…
This is a great site..I’ll be back..
Dorothy from grammology
remember to call gram
I had a blog drop from PR4 to PR0 after the Oct. update. But as what others have said, it did not seem to affect SERPs at all. The biggest thing it affected was TLAs pricing on my ads and monetary value of its links.
Since Google came up with PR, I’m not upset at them. If it doesn’t affect my SERP, the PR penalty just prevents your links from being worth more. In essence, Google’s search engine still stays true.