Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
So all the things you once thought you had locked away securely with your business, via it's website have to continually move and adapt to keep competitive.
I see some threats from things like:
- Google mapping [ alternative product search ]
- Google e-commerce
- Direct distribution, eliminating many affiliates
- Controlling of SEO practices
- Mega partnerships
- Monopolisation of search market [ ouch - some vigorous legal interpretations here! ]
But is it all doom and gloom?
What are the threats or pressures Google has to deal with?
And from this and other opportunities what are the bright spots in your future business relationship with Google?
I'll pick door #2, "No. 1 partner." Google has been good to me, except for two months in 2005.
Well maybe you won't mind if they drop your site from their rankings and start selling travel packages to all of the destinations you market?
Well maybe you won't mind if they drop your site from their rankings and start selling travel packages to all of the destinations you market?
I don't market destinations, but this thread isn't about me, so I'll simply point out that Google Search could have eliminated pages from Yahoo, MSN, etc. from its index a long time ago if it wanted to suppress competitors at the expense of editorial integrity.
Well maybe you won't mind if they drop your site from their rankings and start selling travel packages to all of the destinations you market?
This is too good a question to waste, but oughtn't to be directed at anyone or any widget in particular. :)
I for one certainly wouldn't be happy if Google dropped me in favour of direct selling my widgets to all my target markets.
Generally though, G has been a good partner so far although I'd like to see more true competition to keep it on its toes and maybe stop it conducting so many live 'experiments' on us publisher guinea pigs.
I'll stay on the fence for a while before I decide if a friend has become a foe. ;)
Each individual decision along the way has been the right one, but each one increasingly makes us more dependant on Google. Here's how I approach my relationship w/Google:
1. Always have an escape route. For each piece of Google you use have a backup plan in place. Be ready, willing and able to live without the big G at a moment's notice.
2. Think two steps ahead. Google's moves are very predictable. It's a big company with a ton of cash and a bunch of smart people, and the direction they are going in is pretty clear.
2. Do what you can to keep Google honest. My little part it trying my best to call bull sh*t on Google when they overstep. Matt's latest crap about nofollow is a good example. Don't be a Cuttlet lemming.
2. Do what you can to keep Google honest. My little part it trying my best to call bull sh*t on Google when they overstep. Matt's latest crap about nofollow is a good example. Don't be a Cuttlet lemming.
Better yet, don't be a Chicken Little who echoes the cries of "nofollow! nofollow! nofollow!" without reading and understanding what Mr. Cutts actually said. :-)
Our relationship to google is a competitive AND a cooperative relationship. It's the same type of relationship that permeates the ecological sciences -- for example, where the prey actually needs the predator for the species to thrive.
To me, the ability to tolerate and even embrace this ambiguity, this paradox, is the sign of both the successful web business and the successful search engine. I think Google, more than any other search engine, gets this point, and they've understood it for years.
Paradoxes abound in the online world. Take, for instance, the often misquoted statement by Stewart Brand:
...on the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.
The person who can embrace paradox is the person closest to an accurate model of reality - and that person has a greater chance of success.
With their current algo based structure many results are dubious, just to say the very least.
By the time something new will give users the better selection of sites, the table might turn.
The person who can embrace paradox is the person closest to an accurate model of reality - and that person has a greater chance of success.
Ted - Superb post. I recommend reading it a few times and thinking about it.
