Whitey - 5:18 am on May 9, 2007 (gmt 0)

Indeed Tedster's "paradox" is alive and well for all of us to manage.

The conflict is:

Google Ethics : rules or standards prescribing the conduct of the webmaster "profession" to publish content in accordance with Google's intent.

and herein the "intent" of both parties:

Webmasters : the position of the mind that directs their actions towards the specific objective of "ranking"

Google : the position of their mind that directs their actions towards the specific object of "quality results" and presumably supporting their advertising business model, whilst protecting their "secret soup" for competitive advantage.

I see little ethics on both sides and the management is more about what works.

Simply "ethics" are man made methods of survival in the jungle. You decide [ if you can figure it out ] how you live, prosper or perish. My personal view is that it is better to respect each other's position and work from there.

Even the lion knows that.

[edited by: Whitey at 5:20 am (utc) on May 9, 2007]