Comments on: Sorry, Y’all, I’m not doing a Full Boycott

By: Is Google The New Terrorist? | Snoskred - Life in the Country

Is Google The New Terrorist? | Snoskred - Life in the Country — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:05:27 +0000

[…] Sorry, Y’all, I’m not doing a Full Boycott […]

By: Sephyroth

Sephyroth — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:17:18 +0000

Snos - I’ve been using Scroogle almost exclusively ever since putting it in my search bar - it’s Google, just in a no-frills version (and I think it was you who made the observation that it is quicker, which is absolutely right), though my recommendations still don’t work for some reason; no biggie - I’d just been using those to be lazy and not type words in

I definitely feel that it is about diversifying where we get the information from - just because Google seems to have all the answers doesn’t mean that they do have all the answers. I bet people were saying the same thing about 5 years ago about Microsoft, back when only real “geeks” were using alternative browsers (and Opera was still a pay browser, Netscape was all but dead and Mozilla was just coming to the fore).

Katie - I will say that I’ve gotten a lot of help from them in the past - when I was doing a lot of work with scam emails, I’d put in the address or bits of their mail to get the information back. However, I am liking Scroogle and getting accustomed to the beta of bloglines - the biggest thing is that I have to get myself reacclimated to the different keyboard shortcuts to Google Reader

I also think you’re spot on about the passion not being there if you weren’t directly affected. I think as we get further away from this having happened, the level of commentary on it will go down, and some of the passion will wane slightly; however, this might just be the start of a new revolution…

John - I think that Snos proposed the best solution to the whole debacle - stop publishing PageRank. As it is, there are tons of sites that are selling links on high PR sites. If there was no PageRank to base the advertising on, you’d be back at a situation where sites would advertise based on the actual merits of the site, and not just on one arbitrary factor.

Elizabeth - I don’t think that you’d be told that you aren’t allowed to write for the sites; as it is Sponsored Reviews doesn’t base their rankings on PageRank (I am a SR user, so I know that ). The most likely thing that would happen is that the amount you’d be able to earn from the sites would be reduced (which, if you ask me isn’t a fair shake to everyone who is just trying to get some extra income)

Thanks y’all

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:35:17 +0000

I wrote “The thing about that thing”, but I am not boycotting Google. I didn’t even know they owned Feedburner (which I use) and YouTube (which I also use). I don’t like the fact that Google is holding PageRank over my head, and I still don’t even know what repercussions it’s going to have. I’ve been waiting to hear from Review Me or Sponsored Reviews or Text Link Ads, saying that hey, now that I have a zero page rank, I can’t write for them any more or run their ads. But that hasn’t happened, so it’s like we are all in a state of limbo, and I find that incredibly frustrating. I don’t like not knowing what is going on.

By: John Hunter

John Hunter — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:25:19 +0000

My hope is really just for an alternative to Google PageRank for web page authroity. PageRank was useful because it gave a quick reference for how much authority a page had (based on web links obviously not merit or value or anything) which while only one small measure was interesting. Now that Google is using it as a combo of that modified by other things Google wants to discourage there is a market for a page authority number that can give a quick idea of the links to the page (and hopefully whoever fills the gap can do much better than Google at keeping the figure current).

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 07:48:02 +0000

I’m not boycotting. I’ll still use Google search (which is pretty much the only Google thing I do use) because it’s in my opinion, the best search site out there and I’ve used it for years with no problems. As for them getting a hit when I use it - well, if they are helping me research my assignment, or find something online, then I think they deserve a hit. Just like if someone uses one of my photos, then I’d like a link-back. I use Bloglines, have never used any other feed reader. I guess I just don’t treat blogging as seriously as other people might. I mean, I don’t put ads on my site, I don’t make money from blogging - I just do it for fun and for socialising.

If I was in the other boat with the people who make money from ads, and whose page rank drop has damaged that, then I might feel more passionate about it. So no, you’re not less of a person for not boycotting, and you’re not alone.

Katie

By: Snoskred

Snoskred — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 05:43:11 +0000

Well I definitely think Scroogle rather than google would be a good choice - the search is identical to google, just does not give their search page a traffic hit.

I think if they dropped your page rank you’d probably be ready to throw them out the window entirely as I am with the one exception of Feedburner - especially as you can now send mail with your own domain.

It’s just time for us to spread the traffic love - not everyone is going to completely boycott Google, I understand that. But becoming less reliant on Google as much as possible is a wise thing for all of us to do. We all did it with Microsoft, right?

Cheers,
Snoskred