This post was guest blogged by Jamie Harrop, a Web Entrepreneur and expert in a variety of Web authoring areas. He writes, records video blogs and conducts text and video interviews with other entrepreneurs.
Do you ever wonder what the Google War Room, the G’Plex that is, is like on a week like this? We all know Google has the ability, the means, and hell, some would even argue the desire, to cause complete chaos throughout the Internet. We ol’ bloggers don’t help much, in that we spread the word of Google’s Games at super-sonic speeds. With that said, I often wonder in a week like this whether G’Gals and G’Guys, the Google employees that is, are laughing at us or screaming at us for uncovering all their mistakes.
You see, Google have always been uptight when it comes to their algorithms, and when the word PageRank is mentioned they tend to lock down fast and do so in a swift motion to rival that of NORAD! So when the G’Plex outputs another wave of PageRank Poop, us poor bloggers have to sit here at our lonely desks with our G-Mug, G-MouseMat, G-Tshirt and G-Lava-Lamp, wondering what the hell just happened.
Well, I’m Going To Tell You What Happened
What happened this week, my fellow blogosphere blog-o-teers, was a mess. A mess in which PageRank, once affectionately know as “BackRub“, by the way, shone its true light. A light that shone so dim it almost appeared as if it was caught in the 90′s.
Well you know what? PageRank is caught in the 90′s, and that’s why I’m going to go out on a limb and claim PageRank… stuff it… BackRub, to be dead. Dead as a Dodo. Dead as an Alexa rating. Dead!
You see, last week we saw the usual quarterly update of Google’s public display of PageRank. But what we also saw was a huge wave of yellow cards for blogs. Ten minutes in the bin. A warning with a red card next. However you want to put it, a number of blogs were penalised with a drop in PageRank, apparently because they were… apparently, selling text links.
Two Problems With This
1. Google gave a yellow card to the wrong people. Last time that happened, the referee was suspended. Google penalised the likes of ProBlogger, who were not selling text links. This must have been a huge embarrassment for Google, let alone ProBlogger. Thankfully, after much uproar from the Blog-o-teers of the Blogosphere, Google realised their mistake and handed ProBlogger his correct PageRank.
2. I got penalised. So that’s not the real problem, because I didn’t get penalised. Actually, I don’t sell text links and so Google left me well alone, or so I thought. But you see, many Web sites linking to my blog were penalised (right or wrong, who knows). The effect that had on me, an innocent party in all this mess, was a drop in my PageRank. If Web sites linking to me don’t have a PageRank as high as they once did, that is going to reduce my rank. Not good, Google. You just hurt an innocent by-stander.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was wrong for Google to penalise those blogs who sell text links, nor am I saying it was right. What I am saying is that PageRank, BackRub, KissCheek, whatever, is not fit for today’s culture of Internet, where most sites are out there to gain a financial reward, as opposed to supplying information, and information only, as was the case in the 90′s. The fact is, PageRank is becoming unstable, to a point where innocent parties are losing rank, in return losing visitors, in return losing income, in return making me freaking homeless! (Ok, so that was extreme, but you get the idea).
I’m sorry Google, but until you stop letting mindless humans mess with an incredibly complex mathematical formula that was developed at Stanford to work by itself with no human interaction, I’m not going to be putting an ounce of trust in any PageRank valuation. You’ve royally screwed a lot of innocent people this weekend by use of a formula not built for the 21st century, and I’m not going to forgive easily.
My solution? Rid the ripple. You pour a truck load of concrete in to the pond that is causing this PageRank ripple and start over with a ranking algorithm that is purposely built for the 21st century Internet! Hell, first start with an algorithm built for the Internet. Then work your way up to the 21st century Internet. Right now, PageRank is working at one thing, and one thing only… it’s working its way to biting you in the ass!
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