No paid links, nofollow, whatever - Google Can Kiss My Ass!

As Andy Beard pointed out in a recent post about IZEA, it appears that Google targeted those that use the PayPerPost (PPP) service to write sponsored reviews. PageRanks were lowered accordingly.

I have been somewhat neutral on this topic from the beginning. I don't like to use expletives, regardless of how benign they are, but this is one time when I can honestly say that Google can kiss my ass! Maki said that Google PageRank Doesn't Matter. Actually it does, but only for the time being. PPP users don't get the higher paying opportunities when their PageRank is below 4. When IZEA rolls out their new statistical analysis package this month (Argus), PageRank is going to become insignificant to a whole lot of people really, really fast.

Look at the taglines on my blog. One of them says "Blog Reviews, Promotion, Issues, Monetization and More". The "More" part is just there to keep my blog from being classified into some particular niche. The rest of that tagline is all about promoting others. It doesn't matter if I'm promoting a blog or a business, it's what I do and it's my business how I do it. I am going to link to whomever, whenever and however I choose.

Google is turning into, or has already turned into, another Microsoft. Their practices are becoming more and more anti-competitive and more monopolistic. The only difference is that we don't HAVE to use Google for anything. We're not locked in. Google does, however, have a lot of people relying on their search engine traffic for their livelihood. That makes them wrong in what they're doing.

I'm not the only one that thinks this way. Check out some of the links at the Cayman Host Blog. What I've written is tame compared to what others have written.

I consider what they're doing as deceitful in the very least. Why else would they have used trained monkeys to manually search my blog and manually reduce the ranks of specific pages? In case you're wondering, I have the Google IP addresses in my Clicky and Google Analytics history to prove it (and they're not the bots).

November 4th, 2007 By RT Cunningham | Categories: Advertising, Marketing | Tags: Argus, DoFollow, Google, IZEA, nofollow, PageRank, PPP |

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Andy Beard on November 4th, 2007 at 6:22 am (Reply)

RT, I get the feeling you are a little upset… sphunn btw

RT Cunningham on November 4th, 2007 at 11:13 am (Reply)

Upset yes, but not for myself. I know a few people who were financially hurt by this fiasco.

Maurice (TheCaymanHost) on November 4th, 2007 at 8:12 am (Reply)

First of RT, thanks for the mention

I've seen so many discussions lately that I feel it's only right to spread the word. Google do not have the interests of internet users at heart, and they have certainly lost touch with bloggers. Does this make them evil?

They are a corporation and don't give a damn about users. Stockholders call the tune and Google dance. We just damaged your business, your livelihood…….? that'll be the algorithm, sorry chump!

I think you're right but sadly I doubt that they'll be lining up to kiss your butt or mine

Anyone feeling strongly about the Googleopoly can stop using their services, stop feeding them data. Every little helps.

hari on November 4th, 2007 at 1:03 pm (Reply)

I feel your frustration but I'm glad that we're starting to look beyond pageranks to decide blog value. Already the services look promising.

For google to stay relevant, they need to reinvent themselves fast. Their image as a benevolent giant is dearer to them than all the stocks in the world and for their long-term survival it's absolutely critical. So they won't go to radical extents to alienate a section of the internet populace. (hopefully)

Stevo on November 4th, 2007 at 3:57 pm (Reply)

I have a post on this almost ready to go. All my mates who started blogs about the same time have a PR of 4 or 5. I was slapped with a 2 because of PPP. I will strike Google from my personal lexicon. This whole situation leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.

Michael Woo on November 4th, 2007 at 4:29 pm (Reply)

yea definitely google can suck up my ass.. they are one of those people who squeezes you everything that you have..

anyway great article, i have sphunn you!

Shrinidhi Hande on November 4th, 2007 at 5:48 pm (Reply)

If you include rel="nofollow" in the links you give in paid posts, does PPP refuse to pay?

RT Cunningham on November 4th, 2007 at 6:03 pm (Reply)

I don't know, but it's probably against their ToS.
2. Shrinidhi on November 5th, 2007 at 12:11 am (Reply)
  
  because as long as there's a nofollow tag google doesn't care whom you're linking and how much. If PPP can permit nofollow tag (say for a lesser payment) it should be great…
  
  worth checking out..isn't it?
3. RT Cunningham on November 5th, 2007 at 12:57 am (Reply)
  
  It's not PPP that makes that decision. It's each sponsor. The links are specific to each opportunity and they never include "rel=nofollow".

HMTKSteve on November 5th, 2007 at 12:13 am (Reply)

I think the first step is for all the bloggers to remove AdSense from their blogs, even if only for a week.

When I did run AdSense I provided at least a million ad impressions a month for them with a low traffic blog (3 blocks per page adds up).

RT Cunningham on November 5th, 2007 at 12:59 am (Reply)

That shouldn't be too hard for most. Most people get pennies out of it. I plan to do exactly that with my other blog and to replace the Google Search with something else again.

My plan is to support Google as little as possible.
Mike - Twenty Steps on November 5th, 2007 at 6:29 am (Reply)

I tell you what would be a great idea. A day of action where everyone removes AdSense from their site for one day. I can't imagine that people would be prepared to drop if for an entire week but one day is workable…

Mike - Twenty Steps on November 5th, 2007 at 6:26 am (Reply)

After they've finished kissing yours, RT, send 'em over to see me too because I'm not going to let them dictate what I can or cannot do.

Whatever happened to them following the advice set out in their own personal webmaster guidelines? "Make pages for users, not for search engines"

soufulow on November 5th, 2007 at 1:44 pm (Reply)

Everytime Google did something different (change of PR, change of SERP, change of webmaster rules), people get dissatisfied and curse on'em. some would say they are now the second microsoft, and some would yell that google is broken…

What happened always is, however, google lived on, and grew bigger everytime it changed. so, should google kiss our ass, or vise versa? i'm confused.

(I mean no offence, just offering an alternative point of view from another angle.)

RT Cunningham on November 5th, 2007 at 2:17 pm (Reply)

I appreciate your perspective and you're right. It doesn't mean we have to take it in the shorts every time they make a decision to change things for the worse (from the blogger's perspective).

I really don't care about Google. I never did. I do care, however, about other bloggers trying to make ends meet (using blogging as a second income), doing okay, and then all of sudden getting slapped back to a PR lower than it was a year ago. They can't make the money they were making a month ago and it isn't their fault.

Matt Ridout on November 6th, 2007 at 6:56 pm (Reply)

I do agree with you on your feelings towards Google. I don't agree what you said about page rank, proper site analysis should be carried out when looking for links anyway and those that buy for PR are foolish.

I agree with some of your post comments too, I personally don't like Google, I don't like how controlling they have become but at the end of the day they bring in the most traffic to the majority of people therefore we must adapt

Malcolm Lambe on November 7th, 2007 at 12:07 am (Reply)

Yep the whole PageRanking/Google Search Ranking is skewed and open to abuse and manipulation. But the bastards are so huge and powerful there's stuff-all anyone can or will do about it. Getting bloggers to take down Adsense for a day? - childish and laughable. I think Google would thank you for the publicity.

Clement on November 11th, 2007 at 11:24 pm (Reply)

It looks like SocialSpark will enforce the nofollow attribute on links in sponsored review. I hope this will make IZEA Google friendly.Your current woes will be history.

Crystal on November 18th, 2007 at 6:52 am (Reply)

I understand what you're saying but I don't know if I agree with it. They are just trying to keep their search results clean and free from spammers. It looks like they are being vindictive when you look at it from our side - but there are a lot of link farms and spammers out there that they're just trying keep from spamming their results

RT Cunningham on November 18th, 2007 at 10:33 am (Reply)

Google wouldn't piss me off so much if their actions were above board. It's already been confirmed that specific blogs and websites were targeted.

Making it an even playing field is okay, but they didn't do that.

Gene Phillips on December 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 am (Reply)

I 100% agree with you Google is of their freakin rocker. Its one thing after another with them. MSN is a horror and it seems google is following the path..its just crap..

Gene Phillips's last blog post..Mobile RSS Feed That Can Make Your Blog A Mobile Money Machine

RT Cunningham on December 4th, 2007 at 12:07 am (Reply)

I might be playing the Google game, but it doesn't mean I like it. I stand by my words.

dudaktan kalbe on January 31st, 2008 at 3:09 am (Reply)

haha nice post

unTECHy on March 3rd, 2008 at 11:14 am (Reply)

Wow, I get paid to place other sites on mine too. Its called adsense. I hope google doesn't dock me for that…

Seems hypocritical to me. They won't dock you if you place their paid links on your site, but they will if you put someone else's paid link on your site.

unTECHy's last blog post..Canonicalization? Give Google what it wants