Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I'm convinced that today's webmaster is under the Google mindshare spell. Most don't even realize it.
[webmasterworld.com...]
I have my one site listed in google directory and the link information is wrong there. Could anyone tell me how we can contact the editors and change my link information for my website link in google directory....
Do you actually believe the dialogue on a Google Group or a Matt Cutts blog is moderated for anything other than to make webmasters conform to Google's corporate will? On WebmasterWorld, and other forums like DP, SEW, TW, and many others, we are free to discuss every aspect of search marketing. On Matt Cutts blog and the official Google forums you are not. Google controls the dialogue and the outcomes of the discussions. Google and Matt Cutts are not concerned with helping you rank better. They are concerned about the integrity of their algorithm, and making webmasters unpaid partners in protecting Google's algorithm through snitch networks and data mining enterprises like Webmaster Central.
When was the last time GoogleGuy or the other representatives did something on the webmaster forums to help or answer questions? Where have they gone? I will tell you where they are. They are hijacking our dialogue and moderating it on the official Matt Cutts blog and their other Kool-Aid forums. I believe it's a conscious effort to control what you think and gain webmaster mindshare for the benefit of Google.
Google is the Internet
Am I the only one who feels it's extraordinary how Google is becoming the arbiter of web ethics, coding practices, and the webmaster dialogue? Do webmasters really want an Internet that is defined and dicated according to what is good for Google?
[edited by: tedster at 4:45 am (utc) on May 11, 2007]
Seems to me that the only thing that anyone can point out that Google has done wrong is that they have grown big.
For one of my hundred videos I wanted to buy a famous piece of music and not violate copyright. OK I go to the copyrights owners website and fill out the form what i want to use it for.
Opps I mentioned Youtube.
What do I get back as reply: I am expressively forbidden to use it on Youtube Google Video. Well since I did nothing wrong I phoned up the head of the legal department to ask if he hasn't lost his plot cause I just asked for a quote. After he gave me a rant about 15 minutes about Youtube Google I could get out of him somehow the price, sadly after this he started again basically accusing me for all copyright violations on Youtube, how evil we youtube users were and that Google Video would be the same. He said they would regularily hun down copyright violators and would have a lawsuit with Google. Since I have always tried to use free music, I am not worried, but the whole experience left me more feeling like I am part of some inernational crime syndicate than a customer.
Personally I would conclude from that that Google Inc's reputation is going down the drain, even more when they decided to support the Chinese Government in their censoring efforts.
For my business I have now decided to open up my own streaming as itt seems to start to harm my reputation to be overly associated withe the Youtube service.
Smallville is an odd place. It was almost completely destroyed in the 1931 jelly-mining disaster, and the destitute region was forced to use a grid design for the rebuilding of their city, with the result that almost all buildings are alike.
Nonetheless it is a popular area, mainly because of the mountain biking opportunities on the hills of solidified jelly slag which surround the city and the herds of domesticated wombats which form the backbone of the local economy, and boasts around 100 four-star hotels which are locked in a battle for custom.
As efv will know, Elbonia is also unusual in the sense that it is a country which is tremendously pro-Google. Matt Cutts and Adam Lasnik are treated like rock stars, and changes in the Google guidelines are featured on the evening news and in the local daily papers.
As I was preparing for dinner one night, I heard a knock on the door. When I opened it, a small group of people were standing outside.
"Excuse me," said one of them nervously, "I understand that you are an SEO." Several of the group flinched and one woman crossed herself rapidly. "We are all hoteliers in Smallville and would like to ask some questions if we may?"
I invited them inside and listened to their story. "We all have websites for our hotel and we all know about the Google guidelines," he said. "We have dealt with all the canonical issues, we used meta descriptions, our URLs are clean, we have tours of our hotels, walking, hopping and skipping visits to the old town marked on Google Maps, videos of mountain biking on the slag heaps on YouTube, and we all have one person on our staff who is an expert in social media and blogs regularly about life in Smallville."
"Yet all of our hotels down at between 40 and 60 in the results on Google's pages. The hotels that are on the first page don't have anything like the information and value that we do and we wondered what it is that we are doing that is against Google's guidelines."
In true Matt Cutts fashion I whipped out my laptop and tapped away.
"Well," I said "the Hotel Post at #1 was the host of the World Jelly Congress in 1995 and still has a link from their home page. And #2 is the Hotel Central. The uncle of the owners is a professor at the Technical University of Elbonia and links to their site from his university home page. While #3 is the Hotel Elbonia, which has an exclusive sponsorship arrangement with the World Mountain Bike Xtreme Jelly Tour. But I am sorry, I do have to rush as I have a dinner reservation."
The group thanked me and shuffled out of the door and I thought nothing more of it until a few weeks later when I received a phone call from a business friend of mine.
"stever" he said, "you were in Elbonia weren't you? I just had a strange call from a hotelier down there offering a great deal on our yearly conference and a free villa for myself and my wife if we chose his place. He's even offered us information about Smallville and the hotel to put on our conference site. Brilliant offer, I think we'll be going there."
I put the phone down and it range again. "stever," said another friend, "you won't believe it, but four or five hotels in Elbonia have decided to sponsor our research into electro-magnetic fields in jelly strata. Secured our funding for the next year, I can tell you, and we just have to put a logo and link on our published work."
A letter fluttered through the front door.
"Esteemed sir," it read, "you don't know me but I represent the Smallville branch of the Elbonian Luggagemakers Association. After your talk with my brother, I wanted to contact you about our website. Like my brother, we feature all kinds of information about our exclusive wombat hide luggage, with explanations of how it is cured, the life stages of a wombat, galleries of famous users of our products, competitions for the silliest use of our goods, and yet we can't seem to get above the sites like elboniafortravellers and travelelbonia. They take all the top places but only have one page about the luggage which has brief reviews of certain products. I shouldn't really complain because the sales eventually come to us in the end, but all the links go through WombatLuggageIsUs and have these strange letters and numbers at the end..."
I put the phone down and it range again. "stever," said another friend, "you won't believe it, but four or five hotels in Elbonia have decided to sponsor our research into electro-magnetic fields in jelly strata. Secured our funding for the next year, I can tell you, and we just have to put a logo and link on our published work."
Ah, the dreaded "purchased links to get rankings" syndrome. They better no-follow those! ;)
WBF
Why did you choose to tell your story about friendly people who reside and are so passionate of their country and communities as well as local businesses near Major Hotels in Elbonia, is there a second thought to that? I see your point, but it is still a great wonder..
..
IMO, you wrote the best post on this thread!
Unfortunately, you haven't had a chance to meet some news sites owners in Elbonia, for example "Elbonia Times" to tell us about how they have successed in generating and indexing thousands of pages on Google :-)
Maybe next time.
Google has less than 1% of the market in Korea
(which has highest broadband penetration in the world, and very arguably one the most "advanced" internet cultures on the planet.)
"Local grown" portals dominate the market.
all your base does NOT belong to Google.
done.
</interlude>
EFV, we've discussed my "action points" in other threads - months, years past.
All I can say that I have personally and professionally removed adsense from our sites.
Quite honestly, it's the lazy webmasters' way to make money and leaves hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table for most websites.
As mentioned before TOS prevents me expanding on this idea but a serious business will easily see the value in running the ROI and researching alternative methods of monetizing ANY websites, no matter how niche specific.
And specifically, the methods matter significantly less than web owners REALIZING when they are lazily promoting, endorsing, or using G-specific tools when other, usually better alternatives, exist. Whether it be in idle conversation or the nitty-gritty metrics of a site.
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Is Google being "too big" reason enough for my "complaints"
Uh, hello, yea. What point is everyone missing?
As Adam supposedly told a member here, if one company, wholesaler, dropshipper, website, manufacturer, is in control of 75-80% of your "whatever," as a business owner you had best be doing everything in your power (individually and collectively) to minimize your risks in case they decide they don't like you.
I have never looked to the "competition" for the solution.
Webmasters are the solution.
And since this is a webmasters forum I will make an appeal to action (any action great or small) to do whatever they can, individually, and collectively, for their own long-term benefit.
When Yahoo or MSN or NewSE.com has above 60% marketshare, then I will replace Goog's name with their name and copy/paste my posts into their forums. Until then, Goog's the company I worry about...
As I said before, it's this defeatist, "I'm just one little itty bitty person. I can do nothing against da man" attitude that drives me insane. Great, then please step to the back of the line and count your petty-cash Adsense checks, while those who see the big picture and are willing to do what they can to ensure they and other "small guys" aren't completely dependant on some big conglomerate that could care less about your issues or business.
Because it's never personal, strictly business.... ;)
