To Rank or not to Rank, why is this a question?

There’s an old saying; “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It seems that the saying holds true today, especially in the form of Google’s PageRank system. If you thought that the days of the Google Smack-down were over, think again. The boys and girls at the bog G are still fully engaged in the tactic of penalizing you for making use of the system that they created.

Google may call the practice of selling links unethical or a dilution of their algorithm, but let’s be frank. What happened was this”

1. Google created the PageRank system to identify the most popular or linked-to websites indexed by their system.
2. Google turned this information loose on the internet and the Internet at large adopted the system as a measure of popularity
3. Having adopted PR as the definitive ranking system (or at least the least flawed) advertisers started spending money based almost entirely on this measure of standing. High PR became gold, and people began working for it.
4. Google realized that people were using their system to sell links other than standard banners. (Paid reviews, links, and other various and sundries.) And decided in it’s infinite wisdom that nobody should be artificially creating links to a site that could increase that site’s PageRank in the Google system
5. Google moved to destroy the PageRank of any site engaged in the practice of making a buck by selling links (Or suspected of doing so, whether or not that was the case.)

In the end, it translates loosely to this:

What Google giveth, Google taketh away

This is a completely legal move on Google’s part. They own PR and the rights to it. They can determine whose rank gets displayed in browser rank meters or on Internet based PageRank checkers. In the purest sense of business, it makes perfect sense but in practice, it comes across as a bit childish and heavy-handed.

In my opinion it shouldn’t be the little guy that’s getting smacked, nor should Google be attempting to solve this perceived “problem” with abuse of their system by creating rules and penalties for the people that use it. They should look at their algorithms and figure out a way to ensure that PR can’t be artificially inflated.

We’re not talking about a bunch of back-room hackers anymore, we’re talking about Google. They have the resources to make the changes necessary to make this issue a moot point. Their offices they employ some of the most talented software designers and programmers in the world, en masse. It should take little or no time to divert a few dozen of them to solve this problem and be done with it. In their early days they probably would have, but not anymore.

Unfortunately, google has lost what once made it great. Instead of the slightly rebellious group of happy, free-thinking individuals that they started as, the company has stagnated. gone are the early days of the Internet, and with them has gone Google’s penchant for “thinking outside the box”. Instead of finding creative solutions for problems they encounter, they simply turn to their legal department.

In short, Google has become the corporate megalith it once railed against. Instead of seeking new and innovative ways of getting things done, the staff at Google worries over how shiny and polished its interface looks. Known issues in the underlying software of systems like blogger and gmail go unattended and ignored while teams of developers argue over the latest piece of code that will make a button prettier or allow more colors. Customer support and customer relations emails rarely, if ever get a reply.

Meanwhile the new generation of innovators is filing in to fill the void. Dissatisfied blogger users are flocking to WordPress in droves while Google focuses on new acquisitions. Izea has countered the PageRank system with their RealRank algorithm and they are gaining ground against the titan that is Google. Meanwhile, the big G is slow to respond to these new threats to it’s market share, but quick to penalize those that have helped build their success.

Frankly, I feel a bit slighted. I was there at the beginning. When I started working in the Internet industry all of us were new. We were all risk-takers and innovators. it was an exclusive club of people working in small offices with barely functional equipment and hands that shook from too much coffee or Mountain Dew. The smell of stale pizza and Doritos was the norm, not the exception.

We worked hard, we worked late and we laughed a lot. We learned, we shared and we grew. At some point those of us who still thought of it all as an adventure either became jaded or simply moved on to something that would stir our passion again. the Internet has become industry and that’s not what we were about.

I fear that soon there will be another great upheaval in the world that rivals or overshadows the legacy of the Dot Bomb era. In its infancy, the Internet created companies like Google. These companies in turn either swallowed or destroyed competitors that refused to adapt and expand into the new medium like sharks in a feeding frenzy.

The waters are beginning to stir again, full of small yet determined new companies, all circling the great established companies and looking for a weakness. The giants of yesterday have to remember what made them giants in the first place. If not, they’ll end up no more than memories, eaten alive by newer, hungrier competitors that are willing to take gigantic risks to stake their claim.

In short, Change is in the wind. Take it from an old-timer who watched the Internet become what it is. I’ve seen this before. The scary part is, so have companies like Google. At the time they were the sharks. Today they look more like a buffet, and the sharks are hungry.

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