As a journeyman online marketing specialist, I’ve been reading WebProNews since it’s inception. I gotta say here – people take off the blinders.

My experience with Google is that it remains the most unethical, double standard, peddler of false propaganda out there. On one hand it says "we are not evil", on the other it is structuring internal government archives and affairs and sharing data with the most sinister big brother movement one can find. All the while scamming the investment community into the most absurd profit versus earning ratios that have set new realms of lunacy for stock valuations versus common sense. (Note to Google: be happy your adoption rate outweighed the negative churn rate for dissatisfied clients for so long!).

On another it is stressing neutral kindness to all political wise – while it greases the Democratic wheel for $500k to $1m in return for preferential billing (in ridiculous amounts) for letting our government use it’s simple archive and indexing methodologies to improve "our lives"

With respects to their cesspool comments – their disease goes one step further if you want to see an example for yourself. My last battle with them (ironically on behalf of a US Government entity) they refused to let words related to combat offer up training and battalion regiment information that was saving lives behind the scenes.

BUT – (no pun intended) they stood on their high horse and yelled why they should be allowed to get paid for a word like "scat" by advertisers. A fairly unknown (but highly profitable looking at search intel of past) fetish involving appeties for fecal matter. Check for yourself….. then scratch your head in disbelief and ask yourselves "what is wrong with these people".

I hope that the editors here do not censor this, and some level of common sense and accountability can be re-rendered into society. Personally I grow sick of the hooligans who are running this country, manipulating consumer attitudes, and controlling free press and accountability.

- American Conscience

Surely Google created the mess?

Their original concept was that a back-link counted as a vote of confidence in the same way that a citation counted as a vote of confidence in a published scientific paper.

However, getting links is way easier than getting a citation and requires no due-diligence. That’s a simple flaw. Anyone can get masses of links but it proves nothing.

Instead of complaining about the state of the net, why don’t they put their pointy heads together and come up with a decent solution that filters out the rubbish – most of which is just there to make money from their flawed system (oh and which lines Google’s own pockets and accounts for most of their profit).

Google will be replaced like Yahoo and others. Technology  runs faster and sometimes in different direction than current search engine provider mention.  As soon personal data collection, profiling and missuse of personal information impact us more and more, the internet will change fast.  You pay every day for the free service, like email…, mabe more than you think.

Peter Koegel

The Internet is no more than a reflection of the real world, you get the same cowboys, crooks and saints on the Internet as you do in real life. How many people trust bank managers, or car mechanics, dentists, plumbers etc…? I know from bitter experience good ones are rare and when you find one you need to hang on to him/her.

Having said that, the Internet does make it easier to be dishonest, simply due to the distance involved, which is why I never buy from people otuside my own country. My in-laws are all French and they NEVER use the Internet to buy anything, unless there is absolutely no other solution.

Google can say anything they want, and get away with it.

If mainstream media pick up on stuff like this it just makes it harder for all the hardworking (and honest!) webmasters out there…

Thanks Eric, and even if it is such a ‘cesspool’ you seem to be very happy playing in it!!

Alex S.

Google is a business, first and foremost.  It is not altruistic so it should not be expected to judge sites on an altruistic basis, however much it might want you to think otherwise.

If you don’t pay, Google will try and ensure you can’t play, at least not on a level playing field.

Yes, there is a lot of garbage on the internet.  But one man’s trash may be another man’s treasure.  Let’s face it, without this so called ‘cess pool’ Google would cease to exist and be relevant.  Case closed.

I’ve quickly read the responses to this amazing blog posting and am almost disgusted with most of the comments…

AdWords Rigged? Give me a break! It’s the same as almost any other PPC website, and all additional/sharing functions are pretty much optional. Don’t like it? don’t use it! pretty simple! sounds like common sense to me. it’s too bad more people are worried about their dollars and cents than their common sense (sorry, only 2/3rs of a pun, I know – P.U.)

Collecting information for sinister purposes? Wow, can we get any more conspiratorial?  Where do people draw the line between protection of privacy and "big brother’s secret spy"? Consider this, not only do they not SHARE their data, they don’t SELL it either, which is more than I can say for many other websites out there. (and good luck finding out where your long-lost cousin with an inheritance in Nigeria found your email).

Sounds to me that some people feel cheated by Google, but I find their tools to be VERY useful and MUCH MUCH MORE than just searching online. In fact it helps my small business work between MAC and PC formats (Google Docs), makes my products more available (Google Shopping Cart, Google Base), and Gmail has performed as-good or better than most ISP email addresses I’ve had with as much or more storage space. There are many more services I use that are either essential or complimentary to my needs or are great resources when comparing similar results.

Just throwing this out there, but I think there are alot of people trying to get into the website marketing and the e-retail aspect of the internet and feel that their efforts are fruitless. Well guess what – welcome to the real world! Wake the @#$K up and realize that it’s the same as advertising in the same magazine as Walmart. First you have to AFFORD it, then you have to advertise better, offer better deals and higher quality products and involve your customers. (mental note: check keywords "better than walmart" haha)

The internet DOES NOT offer freedom from competition – and in this day an age where one can simply start a free webspace and add "Buy Now" buttons, that makes even MORE competition for the same customers. Selling Stuff Online is not an over-night retirement plan or something you can quit your job to do in 1 or 2 months.

When I hear Schmidt say the word Cesspool in this context, I agree with him 100%! You want to know why? probably not, but keep reading if you do:

When I was… oh.. probably 10 years old (boy i feel old now), I taught myself HTML. I made a geocities website to practice and wrote COMPLETE NONSENSE, gibberish about my classmates, outright lies about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and how I thought that Patrick Swayzee was Gay. I took pride in the final product, even though it was just things I typed out of my head and didn’t reference anything.

Why do I bother to tell you this? The content is still online! It’s still searcheable on most search engines (with certain keywords, i can even find it in first place!), and it had ZERO FACTUAL CONTENT OR VERIFIABLE RESOURCES. This should tell you something:

There’s alot of people of all ages and ALL AROUND THE WORLD, NOT JUST AMERICA with too much spare time and quick fingers creating content, responding to posts (see other posts for example), or otherwise inflamatory, opinionated, and fictional information and try to make it look official.

To all those who says that "Google should stfu" or whatever: First off, it’s just Schmidt saying that. He isn’t the end-all be-all final say in absolutely everything offered at google, and even if he were – he has a point. Secondly, try not to take things so personal (unless you’re one of those that makes 10 copies of the same website in an effort to smother the competition, then go ahead and take it personal because you’re adding to the cess of the pool). His statement was not toward any specific individual, but about the state of the internet in general. There will always be quality content, the trick is to sift through the bull dung to find the juicy meaty content you need or want.

now that i’ve ranted, I hope I haven’t ruined the latest Alex Jones podcast for those ranters who are all "big brother" on Google, and I hope the milk in your bottle is warm.

Take Care, Best Regards, and try something else if Google isn’t working for you. Don’t hate: Participate.

you people are idiots. Plain and simple. Wake up sheeple!

Google has finally realised what the rest of us have known for ages – they’ve got it wrong. Their model is totally wrong. Linking does not reflect popularity. Find a way instead to register Favorites – then you’ll know what people like.