Comments on: Jason Calcanis: From Now On, Links are Everything http://www.johnon.com/206/back-links.html I think there's an opinion on that subject lying around here somewhere.... Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:09:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 by: Jeremy Luebke http://www.johnon.com/206/back-links.html#comment-2195 Sat, 23 Dec 2006 18:01:45 +0000 http://www.johnon.com/206/back-links.html#comment-2195 What makes you say they only have a very small percentage of user activity? What don't already have, they can buy from places like Akamai. Add that info to the toolbar, analytics, user accounts, search activity, and so on, and they have way more than enough data to create a data set to profile just about any site on the web with at least a little information. They have already proven that they do not care about the small fry websites with almost no traffic (sandbox). In the end though, it is link gaming that is leading them to user data integration into the serps and not issues like Ajax. Ajax is really no worry to Google. It's going to have the same fate as Flash. Everyone is starting to overuse it and will until they realize they are missing out on SE traffic. Users also cannot bookmark exact content. There will then be a movement to scale it back and only use it as a compliment to a site, and not the site itself. Google has proven they control which direction the web development world takes and not the other way around. Google controls the traffic, and traffic is what business owners want which in the end will take precedence over a fancy interface and what developers want. What makes you say they only have a very small percentage of user activity? What don’t already have, they can buy from places like Akamai. Add that info to the toolbar, analytics, user accounts, search activity, and so on, and they have way more than enough data to create a data set to profile just about any site on the web with at least a little information. They have already proven that they do not care about the small fry websites with almost no traffic (sandbox).

In the end though, it is link gaming that is leading them to user data integration into the serps and not issues like Ajax. Ajax is really no worry to Google. It’s going to have the same fate as Flash. Everyone is starting to overuse it and will until they realize they are missing out on SE traffic. Users also cannot bookmark exact content. There will then be a movement to scale it back and only use it as a compliment to a site, and not the site itself.

Google has proven they control which direction the web development world takes and not the other way around. Google controls the traffic, and traffic is what business owners want which in the end will take precedence over a fancy interface and what developers want.

]]> by: Jeremy Luebke http://www.johnon.com/206/back-links.html#comment-2135 Fri, 22 Dec 2006 07:54:49 +0000 http://www.johnon.com/206/back-links.html#comment-2135 I disagree. This is just one more reason why Google is moving to user data to determine at least popularity. <em><strong>John adds</strong></em>: Jeremy, consider this: <ul> <li>Google can only know a very small percentage of user activity, and that activity is skewed (toolbar users, account holders, dirty cookie data)</li> <li>Popularity is not the same as relevance.</li> <li>In the short term, if content goes behind AJAX, what tools does Google have in hand to help it determine relevance?</li> </ul> Given the rich integration of linkage in "the algorithm" already, I can't get past the idea that linkage will be the patch that carries Google to the next level, as long as that takes. I disagree. This is just one more reason why Google is moving to user data to determine at least popularity.

John adds: Jeremy, consider this:

  • Google can only know a very small percentage of user activity, and that activity is skewed (toolbar users, account holders, dirty cookie data)
  • Popularity is not the same as relevance.
  • In the short term, if content goes behind AJAX, what tools does Google have in hand to help it determine relevance?

Given the rich integration of linkage in “the algorithm” already, I can’t get past the idea that linkage will be the patch that carries Google to the next level, as long as that takes.

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