greennature - 11:25 pm on Feb 13, 2007 (gmt 0)

Brett Said:

"This isn't about linking. Their argument is not with the linking in the main index, it is with the aggregation and usage of news stories. This is about the usage and control of intellectual property. In this case, that intellectual property is also covered by copyright laws."

I agree, I mentioned this point about a week back....

Google asserts the right to profit from copying"

I'd have to finish that for you....and holding in perpetuity, anything they please...

My disappointment with Google is that they lay down such stringent guidelines for webmasters to follow in order to rank anywhere in their SERPS.

Now, I'm not against such stringent guidelines, as you know I've worked hard on the technical side of my site because, all things being equal, the guidelines are based on, IMO, some very solid website design rules (i.e., no duplicate content (a. multiple pages of your own copyrighted material on your own site because your CMS is a less than fully completed open source compilation of code or b. duplicated pages on your site that are also found on another site).

So, what Google wants in its index (at least according to my lay interpretation of the changes in the Google algorithm over the last 18 months I've been watching as it pertains to my SERP placements and the SERP placements of others here and at Webmaster World) are sites with original content. And, their algorithm, in effect, filters out (penalizes) all webmasters whose sites don't fit this mold.

Google has all the right in the world, IMO, to set those rules.

My disappointment with Google is that they sure did turn out to be a real "do as I say, and not as I do" type of company. Why didn't Google filter out youtube from its algorithm for providing duplicate content? Why did the Google algorithm not completly drop youtube from its index for copyright violations? Matt Cutts has sure posted enough about the spam sites he's personally taken down.