I just got this e-mail from Linkworth.com This is very disconcerting because I always felt that advertising was a part of business. Surely Google would not target the guys that are doing business in an ethical way??? Linkworth is by FAR the best text link advertising company out there and the ethics of LW are excellent. LW does not sell page rank, it sells quality advertising space. If this is true, it seems very unfair. Ummm... but that is what it is. Should a city tell business they can no longer call billboards billboards? And then what? What next? I very rarely rant about Google, but this is just sad. Thoughts?
I'd have to agree, it really is sad. What happened to the good 'ol days of the best product winning out instead of companies using every underhanded trick possible to peddle their products. It's funny...everyone used to whine about microsoft taking advantage of its monopoly. But what companies are doing today pales in comparison. Apple now bundles itunes with quicktime and forces ipod users to use itunes(which will often completely delete a users entire music collection). Ever tried getting rid of the resident quicktime icon in windows, the average user doesn't stand a chance of getting rid of it. Then there's google cracking down on link advertisers and flexing its muscle by entering just about every known sector. Real media was signing on content provider partners that would only offer their video content in real media(thank god cnn finally dropped that). Ebay buys paypal and forces paypal users to pay from a page on ebay's servers so they can further track their users. I imagine google is big enough to weather any user backlash, but I guess we'll see.
Good post. This may just be speculation so we'll have to wait and see. If it is indeed true then I am going to have some serious work to do. I feel that I have been as ethical as possible in my websites, but I still can't catch up with people who are spamming SE's day in and day out. Now I feel as though I could possibly have to change everything that I have worked for simply because so and so says it is a form of spam. Since when is "sponsors" spam? That is what they are... SPONSORS!
I don't believe it. For now it is only speculation. I find it concerning that LW would send out an e-mail like this though. LW never does anything like this. I guess we just have to wait and see. If it never happens life can go on as is.
Fryman you must be my twin brother. This is pure nonsense. SPONSORS, PARTNERS, FEATURED, ADVERTISERS, ADS These are words on just about every site you can find. No one really knows what's currently going on with google. For all we know a few servers got deleted, stolen, or crashed and they don't want anyone to know cuz it will hurt their stock. Yeah what I just said sounded rediculous but I have just as much proof as this story about the keywords...NONE. lol I was curious and went over to their site...they use all these words like DOZENS of times on their front page...they are full of crap.
I got the exact same email, since I am also a linkworth partner, and it really made me mad. I just sent them an email telling them that their theory is ridiculous and asking for the source of their information. Lets see what they reply...
This is something that I have been thinking about since the begining. From a Google standpoint, people that link site soley for the benifit of raising search engine ranking are not really "voting" for a site in the way Goog's algorithm would like them to be. To ge thte most relevent search, goog would want to only give credit to natural links. If any of this text immediatly preceded a group of outbound links, or if the links where in a part of the page that goog could consider the template part, they could easily discredit the links. I don't know if the are acctually doing this, but if I was goog, I would. I'm not against programs like text ad selling or the coop, I'm a member, but goog could easily discredit them if it wanted to. It's like adsense, the link is there, but there isn't any link value for the sponsor.
PM me too with their reply too or better still, post it in this forum. Personally I think that it although it is possible that Google can adopt such an approach. If they decide to, all they would have to do is to look for the keywords sponsors, partners etc in close proxmity to external text links. And if the external link is not relevant to the content of the current page (in G's opinion), they could penalise the external site. However, if such were the case, then our competitors could easily setup such link pages pulling down our rankings. IMO, if Google does take this into consideration, they might not give weight to the link.
Google, one of the largest advertising companies in the world, is not opposed to advertising. I'm surprised Linkworth would send such an e-mail...
Linkworth is just trying to get posts about them in forums which is exactly what they got. Its complete nonsense and they know it. But how many people will go to their site for more info and possibly sign up
You're probably right...nothing but a publicity stunt. I like some publicity too but am not willing to make a total ass out of myself to get it. Linkworth should be embarressed for sending that e-mail out.
I agree except 95% of their user base wouldn't know its BS (including the original poster). They probably think LW is "ahead of the curve" This myth has been going around a long time.