Google's embarrassing mistake
dyl...@gmail.com
Thanks for signing on to the new, revamped, 2.0 version of "The Tweney
Report." Here's a quick double shot of Tweney news for you:
GOOGLE'S EMBARRASSING MISTAKE: I think it's time we all agreed that
the "nofollow" tag has been a complete failure.
For those of you new to the concept, nofollow [
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html ]
is a tag that blogs can add to hyperlinks in blog comments. The tag
tells Google not to use that link in calculating the PageRank for the
linked site.
In other words, if I post a comment on your blog, and my comment
includes a link to my site, people can click on that link to see my
site as usual. Ordinarily Google would see that link and view it - as
it views most hyperlinks - as an implicit endorsement of my site.
This would ever so slightly boost my site's ranking in Google search
results. But if your blog software adds the nofollow tag, Google
won't give my site any added weight at all.
The half-baked idea was that if everyone adopted nofollow, it would
quickly make comment spam pointless. The thinking was that comment spam
is aimed at creating lots of links to a certain site, thereby boosting
that site's rankings in Google searches. Example: If I fill your
comment pages with links to haiku, then maybe Google will start to
believe that my haiku site really does have something to do with haiku
[ http://tinywords.com ].
Since its enthusiastic adoption a year and a half ago, by Google, Six
Apart, Wordpress, and of course the eminent Dave Winer, I think we can
all agree that nofollow has done ... nothing.
Read more online:
http://dylan.tweney.com/2006/05/26/googles-embarrassing-mistake/
MY NEW WEBCASTING GIG: I've started a new job as editorial director
of PCMagCast [ http://www.pcmagcast.com ], Ziff-Davis's brand-new,
online events channel for consumers and small to medium-sized
businesses. I'll be producing, hosting, and appearing in online
events and web seminars on a variety of technical topics.
PCMagCast is brand new, so don't be put off by the unfinished look of
the site or the small number of events appearing there now. I'm still
figuring out what I can get away with, but my goal is to make this into
a kick-ass venue for online tech events. I'm excited about this job
and I think its potential is huge.
Just last week we put on a web seminar about how to keep your business
going in case an attack of the bird flu breaks out and you're too sick,
or terrified, to go into the office. The sponsor, Citrix Online, would
really like you to know how their remote access solution will keep you
just as productive as you would be sitting at your desk. In other
words, you can play Solitaire on your work PC even if you're sitting at
home, with a laptop, watching Oprah! You can get work done, too, you
slackers. Anyway, the recorded presentation is just 30 minutes long and
it's got plenty of useful and interesting information in it:
Business Continuity: Managing Through Workforce Disruption
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1960914,00.asp
As with all other PCMagCast events, it's free, although we do ask you
to cough up a few personal details on the registration page. Nothing
major -- mother's maiden name, access codes for your ATM, that sort of
routine thing. You can trust us with this stuff.
Sincerely,
--Dylan Tweney
* Chris "Rageboy" Locke gave me a hard time about ripping off *his*
newsletter's greeting in my last issue. As if he owned the phrase
"valued readers" or something. What are you anyway, Rageboy, some hard
assed corporation bearing down on lowlife trademark infringers? [
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/05/web_20_service_mark_controvers.html
] Sheesh. Anyway, I kinda like the guy, so I'm using my own, creative
greetings from now on. Just so he doesn't get too aggrieved and come
raging after me. Anyhow, Chris's newsletter is all about 19th century
theosophists, Nazis, New Agers, and eugenics. It's great fun: