Is Google Making The Web A Corporate Only Entity?

I don't know about you, but it's getting a bit rough out here on the internet as Google revamps how they reward websites with search engine traffic.

It's already tough enough trying to do things above board and play Google's game of right and wrong.  (Though some of the bad guys seem to still be getting away with things.) But after the Panda and Penguin updates from Google, my primary site as been on a downward slide, no matter what I do.  At this point in time, my traffic is exactly half what it was 18 months ago.  That's despite a much vaunted framework/theme and practicing every nice habit there is.  Then there are the sites that steal content ideas and move forward!  Sigh.

But more importantly, this change has dinged my side-livelihood by 70%.  And I used to count on that small piece of livelihood.

As if that's not bad enough, now webmasters are being penalized when bad websites link to them.  And Google puts it on them to find and disassociate these crap links to help your own site do better.  I don't get that.  Google makes billions in a down economy and have the resources to do what they want.  And they put it on us to help them not ding us.

To be serious, that bites my butt and does not settle well with me.  I have no control over when POS websites link to me and steal my content or images.  And yet, Google slaps me for it.

So it's on the webmaster/blogger to find the crap websites linking to them and fix it, what ever that might be.  There are new tools like disavow from Google, or you're supposed to ask the offending website to stop linking to you.  You, the victim, are supposed to know what spam sites, or de-indexed sites are pointing to you.

It's overwhelming if this isn't your full-time thing in life and incredibly discouraging.

When I put my spare time into my beloved hobby, I don't want to spend it chasing down technical aspects of my online life.  Like this previous weekend.  Rather than scribing some passions, I was chasing what it takes to determine what crap websites are linking to me.  Or how to determine if they're in the wrong genre to allow them to link to me.

No...  What I'm seeing is Google slowly and quietly squeezing out the little guy and making the web a corporate-only entity.  They've already looked to reducing link-scores to non-original content.  That alone pretty much puts a diss on thousands of websites that see something on one of the core news websites and wants to write about it.

Somewhere down the road, I would not be surprised to see the web become a pay-venue. 

As all the corporate sites are getting the power of the web, they could very well find it very easy being source-only sites, and hence, be able to charge for their content.  Just like the old days when your only venue to news was either through a newspaper you paid for, or what might make it to your TV.

As it stands, I'm making one last fling at this hobby of mine before I do something else.  I love writing.  I love expounding opinion and I love engaging like-minded or opposing-minded folks, sharing opinions.  But at some point, I have to figure out when it's no longer worth my while.  Or... let Google beat me down into the dust of internet history.

Comments