With a recent piece of link bait it went further: there was a debate about whether Google should be anyone’s mother. This was brought up because Matt Cutts, the lead of the webspam team at Google, noted that he was disappointed in what I assume is a friend for saying that she supported the link baiter and his tactics. Everyone got up in arms and the big debate started. These are my thoughts

Point 1: Matt has said numerous times that he is not Google. He works for them, but he is not the entire company. Sometimes what he says is just him. I have got to get on a soapbox for a minute … The man deserves a life. Let him just voice his PERSONAL opinion without it being “Google’s” opinion. Tons of people started saying “Google said” when in fact Matt said it.

Point 2: What I understand as Matt’s point on Sphinn (where he was asked what Google thought, not what he thought) is that Google doesn’t want to trick people. And that is just what this story did. Was it the writer’s fault? Not entirely, it was written as a satire and people picked it up as truth. But was it misleading, yes.

Point 3: I don’t think there is anyway Google can “find” things like that algorithmically, but I think it was a scare tactic. Do we as an industry want everyone trying this? Making up stories to see if they stick? Not really.

Point 4: The idea behind making up a story to get links is a bad one. It worked REALLY well for this person, but let’s not get people to duplicate it. Google’s mission, Matt’s mission, and a personal belief of mine is that we should do things for the good of everyone. I always understood link bait to be cool stories, features, things that made people go “wow.” But never something deceiving. If you want to use a satire as link bait, cool, but label as so.

Point 5: Did this hurt anyone this time? No. Was it kinda funny? Hell yeah. But give the idea the right power and the right people talking about it, people will start to use it as a tactic. Then you have something that can hurt the ENTIRE industry. Who is going to trust any of us then?

Linkbaiting Ethics Thoughts is a post from: Kate Morris

They even have a live chat person. I was curious, so I got online and asked what they do, what tactic they use. The response asked for my site and they’d tell me. I said no, that I wanted to know how they did it and if I could choose the words that I rank #1 for. All I got was “No what?”

Yeah, I can get anyone’s site ranking for some scatterbrained keyword. That’s so freaking easy. And what is more annoying is people fall for this shit. This site had no SEO for itself, but doing nothing that violates Google TOC, so I can’t really report it. I mean how do you explain to the world of non-internet people that this stuff doesn’t work? That they are throwing their $200/month down the drain.

This was right up there with the letter I got in the mail one day that said I owed $300 for SEO services. But at the bottom stated it wasn’t a bill. *sigh* These people should be locked away and beaten.

Guaranteed Rankings is a post from: Kate Morris

For the top executives at Bear Stearns, they feel it. Their “life savings” are now gone to a measly $28 million. Yes, that’s a far cry from the billions they used to have in stock of the company, but PEOPLE! Their bankers … I mean the REAL workers who have ONE house, maybe ONE car … if that … I doubt are hurting. They are still getting their paycheck.

This is what we get for relying on a system to make us money where we don’t do anything. Investing requires no work, no thought. The gamble was always there. And now these executives are outraged that they have to sell their weekend homes?? I don’t have a HOME! I rent! Their second car??? I am debating about getting a bike because I can’t afford the gas on my car. Given, its a nicer car (my mustang, not an Audi or anything), but still.

I am sorry. I feel no sympathy for these people. When Enron crashed I felt a little bad for the smaller people. But second homes and penthouses mean little to me. Live in one house, drive one car. You live in NYC, you don’t even NEED a car for crying out loud.

The Heartbreaking Tale is a post from: Kate Morris