4 ms·

Google (in the context of search) produce no content of their own, are they ruining the internet?

salsurra 16y ago
From looking at some Google Places I would say they are the king of scrapping content and definitely help contribute to the ruining of the Internet. Example would be my wife's company, which is a large non-profit science center that helps educate kids and adults about science and has a wonderful website that they pay a lot of money to maintain and support. However, Google doesn't see any problem with the fact that they've scrapped my wife's company website to get their contact data, hours, and a few other points that they then put on their own page (Google Places - whatever that is), along with their own Google ads, as well as link to my wife's company competitors all for the purpose of keeping visitors on their site so that they can get the ad dollars while adding no additional value of their own. To me this is the biggest scam in the world and makes them look like giant lying crooks on the web because they steal content from others, while banning competitors that do the same thing and all the while telling people that they doing it for the good of the web. Yeah right?!? Google is doing it for the good of your pocket books. Here's a thought, why doesn't Google start paying sites, or splitting profits with the sites that they scrap data from and then make money off of. They are stealing visitors, traffic, and ad dollars while providing no additional content or benefit to the reader. I believe Google is getting really close to anti-trust issues and should be looked at very closely by the US Gov. They broke Ma Bell up in the 80's because they got too big and I see something like this coming down the line for Google. People are starting to get concerned that their hands are dappling into many areas that cross-support each other, putting a lot of control and power into one company's hands. Google is not the Internet, they make no original content of their own, they regularly police the web and try to tell us what is relevant or not, similar to a dictator in a closed society, and they make money off all of this so of course it's in their best interest to keep it going and make us think we need them to show us the web. Truth be told, I can find anything I'm looking for on any engine, and often I find good and bad results on all of them so to me Google is just another search engine and if they keep going down their slippery slope they will wind up like Alta Vista. Here's a suggestion. Drop your bunk PR and link structured algo and develop a new tool that doesn't support spamming the web with paid links. Google created this monster when they put so much emphasis on links and people all over the web buy and sell links to push their rankings up. This model is so old and out-dated that it doesn't make sense. Now Google is putting band-aids all over their old bunk algo trying to keep their out-dated ways going instead of putting in the time, dollars, and effort on making a new model that will actually produced good nature results instead of manipulated results that have to be regularly policed and manipulated to keep it going. The fact that Google has to regular update their algo shows that they know there are problems with it, but they just keep sticking more patches and band-aids on it instead of building a new model that will not support the spam techniques on the web. All I can say is CONGRATS on putting another band-aid on the OLD ALGO. Maybe this one will only effect a small number of legit sites and, heck, those are casualties of the war on spam, right? Good luck to all the legit sites that are trying to jump through Google's hoops! Just remember, if you don't make it through today you will be gone tomorrow.
NyxWulf 16y ago
It depends what you think the goal is. I expect Google's goal with searching is to get you to the source data. What is the point in going to an aggregator for a query? Isn't that what google is in a nutshell? I'm not advancing a position, just genuinely posing the question. What role should aggregated results play in a search query if any at all?
- daleharvey 16y ago
  I have often found myself landing on an aggregator for a particularly query that has been a helpful resource for related problems. Of course original content has priority, the original poster explicitly agreed with that and there are some site who do produce no value at all, but saying every site who purely uses other sites content are all ruining the internet is obviously very wrong, considering this is google we are talking about.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
- wmyers 16y ago
  The point of using an aggregator is that they supply MORE information surrounding your topic that the original source might. The original article or video might be great, but has no surrounding contextually relevant information that might also be useful or helpful. I personally love using sites that aggregate information for me about my hobbies, whether it be games or sports. I find more about what is going on because that site has done the "value added" work of finding and organizing it for me. Saves me time, because there are millions of sites out there that might have great original content, but I will never find them for many reasons. Not the least of which their SEO might stink. So thank you to aggregators whose SEO chops are good!
modeless 16y ago
No, because Google search doesn't intentionally pollute other sites with aggregated content. I don't see Google search pages in Bing's results, outranking original content. I only see Google results if I go to google.com and specifically request them. That's the difference.
nostrademons 16y ago
The goal from the user's perspective is to get to the content they want as quickly as possible. A search engine helps in that, as presumably you don't know where the content you want is if you're visiting a search engine. A search engine that links to an aggregator site doesn't - the search engine should just send you to the original content directly. Presumably, aggregator sites by themselves also help in content discovery. I find a lot of content through Hacker News. But they should do so by being good enough to be a destination in themselves. An aggregator that needs to be found by search engine isn't doing users any favors.
- iamelgringo 16y ago
  I understand what you're saying, but doesn't Google News do the exact same thing? Google News provides snippets of content, and helps people discover the news providing direct links to the original source of news. For Google to deindex a site like celebrifi and while running a competing product (Google News) smells a bit of monopolistic behavior. It's suspect it's unintentional, but Google is going to have to walk a very very fine line as you start deindexing certain sites.
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    When News results show up on the search result page, they link directly to the story, they don't link to the Google News landing page or category where you'd then have to click on a link. Google News itself falls into the second category - an aggregator that stands on its own, as a destination. Much like Hacker News. I personally don't use it, but the people that do go because they find it lets them discover a bunch of content that they otherwise wouldn't know about.
    - iamelgringo 16y ago
      I know that you're saying that Google News is a dedicated site, and separate from the search results. But, Google links to it's own aggregation service from its results on a regular basis, and at the very top of most every results page in Google there is a link to Google News version of the search. Google News does stand alone as an aggregator, but you have to admit that it is promoted heavily by Google search. If GOOG keeps doing stuff like that, I suspect there are going to be a lot more companies that start to take umbrage, and start challenging this behavior in court claiming that it's anti-competitive behavior.
haberman 16y ago
I go to Google when I want to find something. I click on a link when I think I have found what I'm looking for. When I click on that link, I want to go straight to my destination, not get lost in an maze of sites that do nothing but link to each other and dilute the content. I go to Google because it provides value to me. Aggregator / republishing sites trick you into visiting them with the lure of what looks like actual, original content. This makes the internet less useful because you end up reading the same content over and over.

From looking at some Google Places I would say they are the king of scrapping content and definitely help contribute to the ruining of the Internet. Example would be my wife's company, which is a large non-profit science center that helps educate kids and adults about science and has a wonderful website that they pay a lot of money to maintain and support. However, Google doesn't see any problem with the fact that they've scrapped my wife's company website to get their contact data, hours, and a few other points that they then put on their own page (Google Places - whatever that is), along with their own Google ads, as well as link to my wife's company competitors all for the purpose of keeping visitors on their site so that they can get the ad dollars while adding no additional value of their own. To me this is the biggest scam in the world and makes them look like giant lying crooks on the web because they steal content from others, while banning competitors that do the same thing and all the while telling people that they doing it for the good of the web. Yeah right?!? Google is doing it for the good of your pocket books. Here's a thought, why doesn't Google start paying sites, or splitting profits with the sites that they scrap data from and then make money off of. They are stealing visitors, traffic, and ad dollars while providing no additional content or benefit to the reader. I believe Google is getting really close to anti-trust issues and should be looked at very closely by the US Gov. They broke Ma Bell up in the 80's because they got too big and I see something like this coming down the line for Google. People are starting to get concerned that their hands are dappling into many areas that cross-support each other, putting a lot of control and power into one company's hands. Google is not the Internet, they make no original content of their own, they regularly police the web and try to tell us what is relevant or not, similar to a dictator in a closed society, and they make money off all of this so of course it's in their best interest to keep it going and make us think we need them to show us the web. Truth be told, I can find anything I'm looking for on any engine, and often I find good and bad results on all of them so to me Google is just another search engine and if they keep going down their slippery slope they will wind up like Alta Vista. Here's a suggestion. Drop your bunk PR and link structured algo and develop a new tool that doesn't support spamming the web with paid links. Google created this monster when they put so much emphasis on links and people all over the web buy and sell links to push their rankings up. This model is so old and out-dated that it doesn't make sense. Now Google is putting band-aids all over their old bunk algo trying to keep their out-dated ways going instead of putting in the time, dollars, and effort on making a new model that will actually produced good nature results instead of manipulated results that have to be regularly policed and manipulated to keep it going. The fact that Google has to regular update their algo shows that they know there are problems with it, but they just keep sticking more patches and band-aids on it instead of building a new model that will not support the spam techniques on the web. All I can say is CONGRATS on putting another band-aid on the OLD ALGO. Maybe this one will only effect a small number of legit sites and, heck, those are casualties of the war on spam, right? Good luck to all the legit sites that are trying to jump through Google's hoops! Just remember, if you don't make it through today you will be gone tomorrow.

NyxWulf 16y ago

It depends what you think the goal is. I expect Google's goal with searching is to get you to the source data. What is the point in going to an aggregator for a query? Isn't that what google is in a nutshell? I'm not advancing a position, just genuinely posing the question. What role should aggregated results play in a search query if any at all?

daleharvey 16y ago
I have often found myself landing on an aggregator for a particularly query that has been a helpful resource for related problems. Of course original content has priority, the original poster explicitly agreed with that and there are some site who do produce no value at all, but saying every site who purely uses other sites content are all ruining the internet is obviously very wrong, considering this is google we are talking about.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
wmyers 16y ago
The point of using an aggregator is that they supply MORE information surrounding your topic that the original source might. The original article or video might be great, but has no surrounding contextually relevant information that might also be useful or helpful. I personally love using sites that aggregate information for me about my hobbies, whether it be games or sports. I find more about what is going on because that site has done the "value added" work of finding and organizing it for me. Saves me time, because there are millions of sites out there that might have great original content, but I will never find them for many reasons. Not the least of which their SEO might stink. So thank you to aggregators whose SEO chops are good!

modeless 16y ago

No, because Google search doesn't intentionally pollute other sites with aggregated content. I don't see Google search pages in Bing's results, outranking original content. I only see Google results if I go to google.com and specifically request them. That's the difference.

nostrademons 16y ago

The goal from the user's perspective is to get to the content they want as quickly as possible. A search engine helps in that, as presumably you don't know where the content you want is if you're visiting a search engine. A search engine that links to an aggregator site doesn't - the search engine should just send you to the original content directly. Presumably, aggregator sites by themselves also help in content discovery. I find a lot of content through Hacker News. But they should do so by being good enough to be a destination in themselves. An aggregator that needs to be found by search engine isn't doing users any favors.

iamelgringo 16y ago
I understand what you're saying, but doesn't Google News do the exact same thing? Google News provides snippets of content, and helps people discover the news providing direct links to the original source of news. For Google to deindex a site like celebrifi and while running a competing product (Google News) smells a bit of monopolistic behavior. It's suspect it's unintentional, but Google is going to have to walk a very very fine line as you start deindexing certain sites.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  When News results show up on the search result page, they link directly to the story, they don't link to the Google News landing page or category where you'd then have to click on a link. Google News itself falls into the second category - an aggregator that stands on its own, as a destination. Much like Hacker News. I personally don't use it, but the people that do go because they find it lets them discover a bunch of content that they otherwise wouldn't know about.
  - iamelgringo 16y ago
    I know that you're saying that Google News is a dedicated site, and separate from the search results. But, Google links to it's own aggregation service from its results on a regular basis, and at the very top of most every results page in Google there is a link to Google News version of the search. Google News does stand alone as an aggregator, but you have to admit that it is promoted heavily by Google search. If GOOG keeps doing stuff like that, I suspect there are going to be a lot more companies that start to take umbrage, and start challenging this behavior in court claiming that it's anti-competitive behavior.

haberman 16y ago

I go to Google when I want to find something. I click on a link when I think I have found what I'm looking for. When I click on that link, I want to go straight to my destination, not get lost in an maze of sites that do nothing but link to each other and dilute the content. I go to Google because it provides value to me. Aggregator / republishing sites trick you into visiting them with the lure of what looks like actual, original content. This makes the internet less useful because you end up reading the same content over and over.