Really I wasn’t going to post this but since Matt Cutt’s asked people to snitch on paid links again I thought I’d bring up another case of Google’s double standard and two tiered justice.
CASE A
A public relations person starts working for a Bed & Breakfast in New England. The person comes up with the idea of inviting high profile A List bloggers up for an all expense paid weekend, flights, room & board, meals the whole shebang including activities are comp’d. In exchange they ask the bloggers if they had a good time please write about it on their blog and post some pictures to flickr. Total cost of the PR event $10K.
CASE B
An SEO starts working for a Bed & Breakfast in New England. The person comes up with the idea of buying some on topic text link advertising on travel related blogs. Total cost for 6 months of link advertising $10K
So I ask you dear readers and specifically you Matt Cutts what’s the difference? At the end of the day $10K was converted into links. Why does Case A get rewarded and lauded as a success? Why does everyone involved in Case B get called out for being the scourge of the internet? Why are all of the websites in Case B penalized, filtered, or in some cases completely annihilated from any and all internet visibility, while the sites in Case A bask in their ego stroking navel gazing glory?
Why does Google aggressively go after the SEO’s and ignore the PR people? Why do people continue to tolerate Google’s double standards and two tiered justice?
The example presented in Case A has been examplified here to protect “the innocent” but if you don’t think things like this are going on every day your kidding yourself. In fact Elisabeth Osmeloski wrote about this earlier this year (see Why All Links Are Paid Links in the Travel Trade). It’s not just the travel industry, how many gadgets, cell phones, digital cameras, and even computers are sent high profile bloggers in exchange for visibility and links?
Hey Google Want to prove that you are being fair and shut me up? Get your human editors to review the top A list bloggers in the technorati 100. Look for posts where “gifts” were exchanged for links. Put your money where your mouth is and start banning or dinging them for the exact same behavior you are attacking sites in the paid link advertising space for. Start banning and blocking the A List attention whore bloggers, cut off their payola and side income. Something tells me they’ll stop singing your praises and a few GB of free Gmail storage wont shut them up or solve the problem. How about it Google prove that you are fair and equal and that justice is blind, because from where I sit your rules are selectively enforced and you take an aggressive hard line stance against internet markters, while little Mary A List gets off scott free …