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What I find shocking is a single company (Google) has the power to cause such a dramatic decrease of a website it deemed "unworthy". Sure, it can justify its a

What I find shocking is a single company (Google) has the power to cause such a dramatic decrease of a website it deemed "unworthy". Sure, it can justify its actions by saying they broke the rules, but pressing the a "death button" for a website is not a solution. I feel as though Google needs to re-examine their core principles and determine how to better handle an issue like this. Otherwise, I suspect Google might have anti-trust and anti-competitive issues and the government might set the rules for them, and we all know how bad that would be.

olefoo 13y ago
Ummm. If Rap Genius had traffic of it's own where people were going to them directly, and google were somehow taking that away from them it might be possible to be sympathetic. But, Rap Genius made a calculated business decision to focus their efforts on getting search traffic and not on building a stable organic foundation to which extra traffic would have been a nice bonus but not the controlling factor in their success. And really, what value does Rap Genius add to lyrics?
V-2 13y ago
> but pressing the a "death button" for a website is not a solution. What is a solution then? It seems like a good deterrent. It has to hurt. In Poland (where I'm from) they similarly punished Ceneo, Skąpiec, Nokaut (all most popular price comparator services) and even Tesco. See http://www.seoportal.pl/ceneo-skapiec-tesco-ukarane-przez-google http://www.seoportal.pl/ceneo-skapiec-tesco-ukarane-przez-go... (Polish) or http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seoportal.pl%2Fceneo-skapiec-tesco-ukarane-przez-google&act=url http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&pre... (English by Google Translate). Not one of these websites has died, but a lesson was taught.
- grey-area 13y ago
  Should Google have that sort of power over almost every business in the world?
  - V-2 13y ago
    I agree that this is troubling in its own right. I just don't think that this power was abused in this particular case.
- baldajan 13y ago
  The punishment should fit the crime, and I believe the punishment was far too excessive. In my opinion, I think a solution exists where when one searches for rap genius, rap genius results are on top, not on the 7th page. I am not defending rap genius for what they did, but criticizing Google for their actions.
smackfu 13y ago
Fundamentally the problem is that a lyrics site is going to mainly get hits from a search engine. Not many people are going to type rapgenius.com and then use their search to find the song they want.

olefoo 13y ago

Ummm. If Rap Genius had traffic of it's own where people were going to them directly, and google were somehow taking that away from them it might be possible to be sympathetic. But, Rap Genius made a calculated business decision to focus their efforts on getting search traffic and not on building a stable organic foundation to which extra traffic would have been a nice bonus but not the controlling factor in their success. And really, what value does Rap Genius add to lyrics?

V-2 13y ago

> but pressing the a "death button" for a website is not a solution. What is a solution then? It seems like a good deterrent. It has to hurt. In Poland (where I'm from) they similarly punished Ceneo, Skąpiec, Nokaut (all most popular price comparator services) and even Tesco. See http://www.seoportal.pl/ceneo-skapiec-tesco-ukarane-przez-google http://www.seoportal.pl/ceneo-skapiec-tesco-ukarane-przez-go... (Polish) or http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seoportal.pl%2Fceneo-skapiec-tesco-ukarane-przez-google&act=url http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&pre... (English by Google Translate). Not one of these websites has died, but a lesson was taught.

grey-area 13y ago
Should Google have that sort of power over almost every business in the world?
- V-2 13y ago
  I agree that this is troubling in its own right. I just don't think that this power was abused in this particular case.
baldajan 13y ago
The punishment should fit the crime, and I believe the punishment was far too excessive. In my opinion, I think a solution exists where when one searches for rap genius, rap genius results are on top, not on the 7th page. I am not defending rap genius for what they did, but criticizing Google for their actions.

smackfu 13y ago

Fundamentally the problem is that a lyrics site is going to mainly get hits from a search engine. Not many people are going to type rapgenius.com and then use their search to find the song they want.