People are always "afraid" of Google, but...

[GeorgR.]

If you look on webmaster forums, it is quite common that webmaster have a certain "fear" of google.

Just to list a few:

) Fear of duplicate Content.
"OMG!! What happens if i put this or that article from the article site on my blog - Google will PENALIZE me, they will DEINDEX me"

) Fear that everything has to conform to THEIR standards, starting from PPC link policies ("no affiliate links!!", "No redirects!!")

) Fear that whatever some webmaster does might "harm" their site (rankings) because "Its against Google TOS" and similar like that.

Now, recently i started with Autoblogging and also in regards to some of my own products i often see such questions, especially in regards to dupe content and "scraping" other site's content, using them on your own sites, things like that.

According to their policies, everyone who uses their services would need permission, here what comes up first if you search for
"Google News RSS"

Terms of use
We invite you to make noncommercial use of Google's RSS and Atom feeds on your website subject to these terms, Google's Terms of Service, and the Google News Terms of Service. If you incorporate our feeds onto your website, please also:

2. attribute the feeds to Google News.
3. attribute each news item to its provider, using the provider name as it appears in the Google News feed.
4. include a link to the Google News cluster of related articles for each news item, using the link provided in the Google News feed.
5. identify the search terms used to generate the feed.

We reserve all rights in and to the Google and Google News marks. We also reserve the right to terminate any use of the feeds on grounds that we deem appropriate. You may not redistribute Google's feeds.

And so on.

Now the irony is that Google does indeed use the WHOLE web for their OWN commerical purposes.

() They use news sources from all around the web and distrubute them as "their" Google News RSS service. If you pull a Google News RSS feed


You will see that the link actually does not directly go to the source (the news source in this case, but it first goes to Google [sorry for blurry pciture] - in addition with some "demographic" data encoded to the URL.

What irritates me is the statement "noncommercial use" which is "kindly" granted to others, however i am sure that Google did NOT ask any web site owner or picture copyright holder to use THEIR content and use it for their own commercial purposes <-- how come?

Google of course does not only SCRAPE (yes, "scrape" ) all the news sources out there, but of course also all our sites, as well as any blog, picture and whatever significant insignificant content might be out there on the net.

Then they "redistribute" this content (isn't it PUBLIC DOMAIN ????) in a commercial manner.


What i am saying is...the next time you "worry" about that ezine article which you want to put on YOUR blog ....or if you worry how "bad" it might be to put a RSS feed on your blog - think about that the BIGGEST "content scraper" out there is actually Google itself.

Or, more jokingly: Google would need to de-index THEMSELVES and most of their services since all they provide is dupe content..and that content is OURS

[DavidO]

You've made some good points. But this "fear" of Google (I would also add resentment and even anger) is often justified. Google's dominance of the web means that if you're not in with them you're out... literally.

Some detractors say that as a private business Google has the right to do whatever it wants. After all, they say, you don't have to use it... there's always Yahoo, MSN and the smaller fries.

Yeah, right. If I were suddenly deindexed from Google I would instantly lose half my income. Everytime I see my site temporarily disappear from the SERPs due to some algorithm shakeup it scares me to death. I would never intentionally do anything remotely blackhat - the consequences are unthinkable - but several times I've crossed the TOS without even knowing it.

Crossing Google can be fatal. As a private business it has no obligation of fairness. More than two years ago I was banned from Adwords due to the activities of a hired hand manipulating my account to make himself look good. Fair enough, it was my account and my responsiblity.

But two years later I pleaded for reinstatement and was turned down. "Real" criminals are treated more leniently than this and get a second chance. Luckily, I turned this disaster into an opportunity by learning SEO and now I don't have to pay ridiculous fees to make my sales!

The repercussions of Google's activities on countless businesses and livelihoods is a huge responsibility and one that is sometimes abused. So the fear is not irrational.

[grumpyjacksa]

well said, george......

now we just have to tell google......

and as david pointed out, they don't always listen to reason.......

.........

it has been said that absolute power corrupts.......

just my 0.02c

[australianrealestate]

I just view them as a tool. Loving them or hating them really serves no useful purpose, any more than loving or hating a rainy day does. It will still rain so might as well go with the flow and enjoy it.

But if I had to choose I would say that on balance I'm a huge fan. Without their organisation of the web my life would be much harder. And I do love all the free clicks I get from them.