Swollen Pickles

It's no secret that I lost faith in Google some time ago. I guess that's because, in my opinion, Google has taken up the position as the defacto law maker of the web. Judge. Jury. Executioner. Google has the power to make or break businesses and start-ups. The problem with Google is the lack of transparency and the inconsistent application of their 'rules'.

To further highlight my disenchantment with the Google monster, today I discovered I'd been on the receiving end of some more content theft. Last October I wrote a post on how to make money from the global financial crisis. Keep point here is "I wrote a post", as in me, sitting at the computer, typing stuff that spewed from my brain. Maybe it's not the greatest article ever written, but at least it's mine.

Now today I discover that the same article has been posted on another blog. Although credit where it's due, at least the plagiarist changed the post title and included most of his/her own affiliate links. You can view the highly creative piece here, Plagiarised Post (I added the nofollow attribute cause I'd hate Google to further penalise me for passing link juice to copied content).

So, in summary, I created the content, therefore I am the source. Now, as it happens, Google has previously bitch slapped me, and I lost my PageRank. Remember Google's definition of PageRank:

PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

My blog, the original source of the content is PR0, while the copycat's blog is a PR2. Therefore, Google apparently view the plagiarised content as being of higher importance than the original source. The plagiarised version will appear higher in the organic SERP's as well. How is that fair? How does that provide Google's 'customers' with a better user experience?

It seems as though in Google's eyes taking a paid post opportunity is a far worse crime than the infringement of copyright. Why on earth could that be? Might have something to do the advertising dollar.

What do Google lose in my plagiarism example? Nothing... well, besides some credibility perhaps, but then I'm sure they aren't too concerned about my opinion. And paid posting? Well, if you were a major player in the online advertising game, would you really want to make it easy for competitors to enter the market and chip away at your market share?

p.s.

To the 'content scab' - please don't cut and paste my stuff directly. I don't like it. Thank you.

Copycat DVD 2008

1 Bid

US $.99

11h 39m

If you're reading this, I'm sure you've probably stumbled across countless other blog posts by people complaining that Google has slapped their blog with a Page Rank penalty. I'm also sure you've read countless rants on the increasingly irrelevant position Page Rank occupies in the world wide web. I'm not really sure that is actually true. We can write about it, or we can ignore it, but the fact of the matter is that so long as this thing called Page Rank exists, site owners will continue to be slave to the Google machine, in one way or another.

What does PageRank represent?

Let's refer to that fountain of wisdom that Google apparently values quite highly, Wikipedia:

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set.

Google's own definition of what PageRank represents is a little simpler to follow:

PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

The most interesting thing I found while searching for the formal PageRank definition was that the Wikipedia explanation (when I ran a Google search for "Google PageRank") was the number 1 search result, while Google's definition on their own corporate site was second. What does this mean? Is Wikipedia a 'more important' source than the organisation in which the information originally came from? You can run a Google search for pretty much anything and there's a good chance that a Wikipedia entry will turn up in the top spot, or at least rank very highly. Take 'quantum physics' as an example. The Wikipedia entry currently appears at the number one spot, does that mean that Wikipedia is the most important, most credible and most reliable source of information on the topic of quantum physics? Wikipedia? A website that anyone can edit content, no matter what their qualifications, is the most trusted source of information on a topic like Quantum Physics? That seems a little dodgy to me, but I've gone way off track...

So basically we are led to believe that PageRank represents the worth of a web page in the eyes of Google. The worth of a web page in the eyes of Google then becomes the worth of a web page in the eyes of other web masters. (more...)

Dear Google,

I know that you are wise and all powerful. I know that I am wrong to even think of questioning your wisdom, however, sometimes your behavior confuses me. You used to show me love. Then seemingly overnight, things changed. The love disappeared. I woke up feeling dirty and ignored. If only I knew why you felt the need to smite me I may be able to change. You don't talk anymore, do you expect me to read your mind?

Perhaps in your eyes, I no longer exist, but I'm telling you that I'm still here. Please stop with the smiting and play nicely.

Your bitch,

swollenpickles.

Here's a quick follow up to yesterdays post "How To Improve Your Technorati Rank".

Yesterday my Technorati rank was 91,357, as of writing this it is 88,547.

Another interesting point is that yesterday if you'd search Google for "improve your technorati rank", there would have been no sign of SwollenPickles.com. Run that same search today and SwollenPickles.com is currently sitting at the top of the search results list. Incredible. Maybe it's time I wrote an eBook and sold it for $9.98 Recommended Retail...