Is There an Antidote to the Link Tags Virus?

After Thursday's comments on how a few misguided individuals have tried to finagle better Google PageRank showings and higher Technorati Authority through the promotion of viral link tag spam, there has been some discussion in the blogosphere on the practice, and whether it's as bad a move as I made it out to be. One of the biggest outstanding questions is if there is indeed a loophole in how popular search engines rate authority and influence, is the onus on the individual not to exploit it, or instead on the technology provider to make a change?

While Kent Newsome, a great blogger with strong observations on a near daily basis (See: From Creation to Abandonment: the 5 Stages of Blogging for a great example) seemed to take the brunt of my comments, the issue is more than one individual, as there are many people trying to scream loud enough to be heard in a blogosphere that may favor the strong over the weak. While Chip Camden amusingly said that Kent was playing "Robin Hood" to my "Sheriff of Technorati", I've seen others who considered getting in on the viral links scheme reconsider the practice when they realized it could have some long-lasting, impactful, negative results. Kent's Robin Hood may have been trying to rob the rich to feed the poor, but at least in that storied tale, Robin Hood distributes the loot to others, something Kent can't do while his own Technorati Authority skyrockets.

Earl Moore, who also participated in the viral links scheme, writes:

"If it’s a fraud, then it’s one I’ve participated in as well... I’ll admit for myself that I don’t feel one hundred percent positive about “Viral Tag” links. Going with my gut, I wouldn’t post another one and am even considering pulling the post I have (yes, after the horse has already left the barn)."

Another poster, on a blog called Planet Apex, who just this Friday had opted to join in on the viral tags exchange, quickly realized the error of his ways, writing:

"I have decided to pull out of the Viral-Tags link exchange scheme. I did not realise the risks involve when I joined it. I now understand that instead of increasing your PageRank it can actually decrease it or even get you banned on Google."

Google's power on referring traffic cannot be understated. As much fun as it is to gain the occasional reciprocal links from fellow bloggers, upstream, sidestream or downstream, Google drives anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of all traffic for most sites, making it true that It’s Google’s Way or The Highway, as Garry Conn wrote this week, when he said, "I have made a major mistake. And I don’t want you to do the same thing."

Basically, Google's guidelines specifically prohibit statistical cheating like viral link tags. Google's Webmaster Guidelines state:

"Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

So, it's not so much as Kent says when he wrote on Warner Crocker's site that "The blogosphere is like Deadwood and (Louis) is trying to paint it as Miletus." This isn't the Wild West, even though it's certainly no utopia either. There are guidelines written up by some powerful technology companies that have direct impact on how our content is indexed, searched and presented, and as bloggers who work under this scenario, we should have an eye on what are good links versus bad links, good practices and bad.

Some last notes on viral links and search engine optimization come in the comments of an excellent "Search Engine Optimization Do’s and Don’ts" post at Thought Sparks. I'll let them speak for themselves:

"Plain and simple, honesty and integrity always pays. Short-cuts will not have lasting value and many of these folks will someday soon have a rude awakening. They will also frustrate themselves with the volume of time they’ve spent on futility... And even if you are successful, does one achieve that end at the cost of personal integrity?"

It may be one thing to exchange links. It's quite another to exchange integrity for scheming. Rather than making this a personal issue between those who have sinned and those who have not, we should just eliminate the practice and ask Technorati and Google to clean up the mess.

New TAB Post: Let Your Apple TV in on iPhone Mania

Think the Apple TV is getting the short shrift in comparison to the seemingly unending iPhone hype? It's bad enough Steve Jobs called the set top box a hobby, but now the iPhone is being trotted out as the solution for all that ails mankind.

So, in an effort to make our Apple TV feel more welcome and part of the process, we've been watching Apple's new iPhone tutorial videos through the Apple TV, and not on our laptop. After all, who wouldn't like guides on activation for products they may not purchase on a 42-inch widescreen TV?

That's the background behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled Let Your Apple TV in on iPhone Mania. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

TiVo Upgrade Offer Just Might Work On Me

Forget about the iPhone for a second, if possible. TiVo sent me an e-mail earlier today, practically begging me to upgrade my old Series 1 DVR with lifetime service to a new 80-hour Series 2 DVR model, for $299, taking my lifetime service contract with me. While TiVo's Series 2 model has been out for some time, and has already been lapped by the company's Series 3 boxes, the second generation boxes offer enough advantages over the first generation that I'm seriously tempted to take the plunge.


Click for full invite or visit the offer page

My wife and I just might be the cheapest TiVo customers in history. We didn't pay a dime for our 180 Gigabyte (140 hour) Series 1 box, which came to us from a friend as an extremely generous wedding present in April of 2003. Four-plus years later, the only money I've ever given TiVo was my initial lifetime service fee of less than $300, and I've never looked back or given TiVo a dime for new service or hardware, even finagling a free remote from the company's headquarters just last month.

But as we held steady with our TiVo, the company continued to innovate, adding the ability to record from multiple channels, and the ability to serve up home music and pictures through the device. Still, we were stymied by TiVo's doing away with the lifetime service option in a push toward more consistent monthly subscriber revenues. We were happy to stay with series one, thank you. Later, this was made even more solid when the Apple TV came into our lives, bringing photos and music to the screen on its own.

Today's e-mail has me thinking again. Is it worth $299 to pick up an 80-hour Series 2 device for dual channel recording and an improved form factor? It just might be. TiVo has done well by us for almost five years, and I'm beginning to think it's our turn to do well by TiVo and take the next step in this relationship. We'll keep you posted if we move forward.

Kent Newsome Calls My Comments "Fear and Loathing"

As anticipated, Kent Newsome didn't believe my concerns around viral link tagging were valid, saying he saw them as another way to help balance an uneven playing field. He writes, "For me, the (tags are) a small attempt to end run around the fact that, despite writing hard for years, I simply cannot get many of the popular bloggers to allow me into the conversation.", adding, "The blogosphere isn't a perfect place, but it's the only one we have."

For perfect transparency's sake, I had been thinking for quite some time around this issue of external hyperlink padding, and was absolutely concerned that by using Kent as the example, that he would see it as a personal attack. My thoughts around this post had been ruminating for weeks, as I saw the practice spread. But what I truly want to get across is that while I still believe the practice is bogus, that I think the onus now falls on the search engines, like Technorati and Google, to close the holes in the way they tabulate these results. Kent is a great guy and his blog has some outstanding content, which is why we've traded links and comments for months. That's not up for debate.

If there's a better example of a prominent blogger who I respect who uses this practice, I'm happy to add them to the discussion, but for now, that hasn't happened, and Kent is on whom the sword fell. Be sure to see Kent's response here: Fear and Loathing in the Blogosphere. As he and I discussed before, blogs are about conversations. So what do you think?