I took this post down for a reason that is no longer relevant. So, it's back.
What Google can do to make the Web less of a 'Cesspool'
Wow. Since Jim works for such an esteemed publication with high journalistic integrity, I have to believe that "Cesspool" (in quotes) must be more grammtically correct than the more raw, naked sans quoted Cesspool. Not to put too blunt an edge to it but how did Google come to get a "bigger piece of the pie than it deserves"?
Well now that reality has struck and Jim et. al. are free to see, he, and apparently "others", wants to blame someone else for unfair slights such as having to buy their own brand keyword, inflating the value of the last-click and not properly distinguishing between real journalistic content and that crap those uncultured, swine-flu infected, and generally unsportsmanlike bloggers are spewing forth. In fact, I think he writes (yes, I just went back and read it) that "search is not really all that great at the moment" - well he says he's just "heard" this comment from people smarter than he. (well, he can't actually get the words out "smarter than me" he just says "more astute" which, technically is a bigger word among intellectuals but with fewer letters - so you get two intellectual beans for using "astute" rather than "smarter" - one is that its "greener" (more bang less energy) and two, well, you just sound smarter saying it.)
Wow. So much dead meat to carve in the post and so little time and space to do it. How about if we just start with the fact that in a digital world, if you can't be found you don't exist. That's what I would call Jim et. al. falling out of bed and finding their collective selves prone, face-down on the cold, hard marble slab of reality. Blaming google is kind of like blaming Newton for gravity. Yeah, he made the math that describes how much it hurt when their cheeks hit the floor but shouldn't some responsibility be taken that Forbes just didn't see that coming?
And, isn't saying you're forced to buy your own keywords kind of like my 15 year old daughter complaining that she's forced to wear skinny jeans? And, isn't the answer the same that James Dobson hears when he complains to HBO about the content of the Soprano's? If you don't like the content, change the channel, or turn off the TV or don't buy the keywords if you don't want. Just because everyone is doing it (wearing skinny jeans; buying their own keywords) doesn't mean you have to, Jim.
Of course, the market thinks it is important and so they do - but why be mad at Google because they were smart or lucky enough to think of the idea first? If you want to compete, Jim, then work on being more "astute" or "astuter" as it were.
Now, I happen to think that online advertising/branding does have a future but it doesn't look quite the way many existing web publishers wish it would look.
Oh, one last thing. Online search "may not be all that great at the moment" but it lays flat the world of content and puts control of who is better in my (uncultured, swine-flu infected, unsportsmanlike, blog-writing) hands, Jim, not yours.
