Midlife Musings

Yet another not-so-boring article on the Google shenanigans

Let me ask you something. Before the rankspank, how did a site get PR? In general, it was assumed that the way to build PR was to get sites that had PR to link to you. I say assumed, because the algorithm that computes page rank is guarded more closely than the vaults at Fort Knox. So, anyway, and whatever. Previously observed examples of page rank attainment indicated that having people link to you would increase your page rank, particularly if their pr was higher than yours.

Now, since the rankspank, people have been asking questions about the implications of it, what it all means, where we go from here and offering all sorts of theories about protecting ourselves from further harm, and accusations that PPP is responsible for Google’s actions, and it’s just been a real wild ride around the internet. As you know if you’ve been reading here, I am taking a more relaxed attitude toward the whole debacle, using the benefit of my great age and wisdom (HA) to remind myself that these things typically work themselves out in the end, and that panic is rarely justified.

Of course, it helps that I’ve been paying attention to some of the sites of people I have blogged for in the past. Colleen and others are asking about the middle men who procure our ads for us, but I am going another layer deep and looking to the advertiser’s themselves. The folks I have blogged about still have their PR. Let me repeat that: the advertisers that bought buzz and reviews via paid blogging companies and that listed links via link sellers are still reaping the benefit of having done so. This rankspank is a farce, it’s purely cosmetic and as unreal as the basket of Maybelline I keep on my dresser. If the bloggers who made money from their blogs were truly ranked at 0 now, then all those advertisers would be left holding a page rank of…yeah, 0. Maybe 1, just for the sheer number of links involved.

The next thing people are saying is that Google will de-index us if we continue on running our little blog businesses. I don’t think so. Google is primarily a search engine, and they are at the top because they are the best. For now. But they are not the only engine in town, and if they de-index bloggers on any kind of massive scale, and people can’t find the information they are looking for, they will turn to those other engines. I’m seeing it already in fact, with more searches from Ask and Yahoo in my referrals. Google has hacked off more than just paid bloggers with their high handed tactics, and no matter what else comes if it, people still don’t like a bully, and that’s all this really is. Of course, if no one ever find this article, I’ll know that I was wrong. J/K

Let me wrap up by saying that this PR0 is quite the ego stroke for me. Google considers my business model such a threat to their business model that they had to give me a cosmetic rankspank. A rankspank that did not reduce my actual advertising value at all.