This as a parody of a Micheal Grey post…
This is my video response to Micheal Grey’s post “Is Google Stealing Your Content and Hijacking Your Traffic“.
He basically says that Google is evil and bad for providing free information about local businesses on the web.
This is a parody of that post. I feel his post is dumb as poo. So let me explain to you…
How Paper is is stealing your content and hijacking your traffic
Update: Micheal responded to my video with a video of his own. Here it is…
Very funny.
@graywolf, I got nothin’ but love for you, but I believe you’re dead wrong on this one. (I didn’t at first realize that you were speaking up for the review sites, and not the business owners, but even so)
I think, rather than seeing a situation that merits an agenda, you have an agenda and you’re bending a situation to suit it.
Very few business owners (and NONE of my rather long acquaintance) are going to see a dark side in free advertising next to a Google map (even if it is wrapped in AdWords ads) They don’t know or care about “MFA”. After all, most of them have been paying beaucoups bucks for years to advertise in the Yellow Pages – usually right next to all their competition, too. Compared to that, this is manna from heaven.
You operate on the web so web traffic is important to you. For the plumbers, the roofers, the dumpster providers, the funeral homes that I’ve dealt with – they don’t care about pageviews or click through rates. They care if the phone rings, and whatever makes that happen is okay. They care about doing whatever it is they do (plumbing, roofing, dumpsters, funerals), and not worrying about web traffic. If you told them that Google was stealing from them by posting their hours, or their phone number, why, they’d look at you like you’d just sprouted another head.
I want to comment on Micheal’s blog but I can’t.
Or I didn’t see that I could.
I do truly love both of you because you each make good points. I do tend to side with Pat on this, but Micheal, your reply brought up a good thought as well.
Initial reaction: If businesses don’t want to be in the index there are ways to remove your content. Very clear ways. And it’s not violation of copyright if the original creator is referenced and credited. Google never passes this information as their own. So in that respect, I disagree with Micheal’s argument.
As for the businesses that make money off impressions, it’s the same thing. If they don’t want to be included, they can keep Googlebot away. There are ways to stop this from happening.
BUT Michael is making a good point about content and search engines in the future. When Google paid Twitter for their content, they changed the game. Before, it was just everyone, and if you didn’t want to be searched, you just took your content out. But this new world where professional writers (ex. magazines and newspapers) lose money in subscriptions to online news, something has to change.
Google does benefit from the information from journalists and websites. The businesses and news sites now benefit from the business that Google sends. BUT as consumers increasingly shut down to advertising, newspapers are running out of ways to make money and keep their businesses going.
I am NOT saying Google should pay us all, but I am agreeing that the scales have tipped. It’s becoming increasingly unequal, and the next 5-10 years are going to prove to be earth shattering when it comes to content online.
Great points to both of you. Pat you crack me up as always while making the necessary points. And Micheal, great rebuttal. You always have a way of making me think of the other side of things. I still don’t completely agree with you, but you accomplished your goal in making us think of the other side of the equation.
I am really annoyed to read your blog……….
i think ill go with Michael on that.
The fact that is that google is using the content of others sites as there own and that doesnt changes. They are making money presenting as there owns content that doesnt belong to them and that doesnt change no matter how much we want to believe that google is trying to improve the search experience of there customers.
If i had a restaurant i would like to have a lot of customers coming to my restaurant and eating my meals. However, since i would have invest a lot of money and time building a site that would appear on internet, i would like to know if there are people visiting my site and looking the info regarding my restaurant/ my menu/ my pictures and other things. So i would know if there is any point investing more money on my site or find other means of advertising for my restaurant.
From im looking at…that would be extremely difficult right now as all those would be available in google …and no one would come to my (imaginery ) restaurant site
Thanx
antonis
p.s. sorry for my bad english.
Okay, so I’m one of those small local biz guys, a massage therapist actually, and I do have an issue with this scraping thing. Specifically, when Google scrapes the wrong damn info (from Dex). This even after I dutifully entered my biz info in their small biz listing MONTHS ago. They used to show that, but now they are showing the incorrect dex info instead.
This is a nuisance.
Michael is making a good point about content and search engines in the future. When Google paid Twitter for their content, they changed the game. Before, it was just everyone, and if you didn’t want to be searched, you just took your content out. But this new world where professional writers (ex. magazines and newspapers) lose money in subscriptions to online news, something has to change.