Google CEO Eric Schmidt called the Internet a "Cesspool" Wednesday in reference to the quality of content and the amount of false information residing on it. This according to AdAge is a subject he spoke about with an audience of magazine executives at Google's campus, where an annual industry conference was taking place.
Schmidt stressed that "Brands are the solution, not the problem...Brands are how you sort out the cesspool."
I couldn't agree more.
In response to an inquiry for advice about appearing more popular on Google, Schmidt told the magazine publishers, "We don't actually want you to be successful...the fundamental way to increase your rank is to increase your relevance."
Branding and relevance. Hmm. Could it be that proving your content to be relevant could increase the credibility of your brand, or "the authority" perhaps? Would it be safe to say that reader engagement is a reflection of relevancy as well? If more people become involved in a discussion, is that not a sign that it is more relevant? This sounds familiar.
OK, I'll come right out and say it (yes, I'm going to bring up Bankaholic yet again). Take Bankaholic, the financial blog that was just sold to Bankrate for $15 million. Part of the reason Bankrate bought it was because it ranked well in search engines for hot key words the company was going after.
Johns Wu, the guy that sold the blog has acknowledged that user engagement was a huge factor in its success. It's obviously relevant if it's creating a good amount of discussion. And it's ranking well. The name Bankaholic works as a pretty solid brand as well (some have speculated that this was also another factor of the purchase).
Schmidt is absolutely right. The Internet is a Cesspool of garbage, and relevancy and brands are the way to filter out what's good. It's no different than it's ever been. Think about classic print publications. You've got trusted magazines and sleazy tabloids. You were always taught not to believe everything you read. The same principle applies online, it's just that the amount of content is much greater (on both sides of the spectrum).
When discussion is taking place, relevancy is easier to pick out, and brands represent authority. Authority and engagement. Those are the keys to success, and that is the reason why new media is still a legitimate source of information despite people gaming the system to try and take advantage of it in unethical ways.
It Doesn't Stop with Content Sites
Let's look at the concept from a broader business standpoint, because these principles don't only apply to content sites. They also apply to eCommerce businesses or even the web aspects of traditional brick and mortar businesses. I don't care if your site only leads to selling products on eBay or Amazon, you must have ways of establishing your authority, which creates trust with potential customers. A blog or even “expert articles” that give tips and advice can be a good way to accomplish this. When a customer senses that the people running a site know what they're talking about, they are more likely to purchase products from that site.
You can use blogs to engage site visitors and you can also integrate Web 2.0 type apps. For example, Best Buy has just launched an "enterprise-Twitter"-style application called Mix aimed at employees. Similar tools can be available for customers that will create an interactive environment that helps build a bond with customers, often prior to the sale. Anything that can help you develop a dialogue with your potential customers is going to help inspire trust.
A recent survey found that 81% of consumers don't trust small online businesses. Authority and engagement are ways to overcome this. For more on earning customer trust online, see my seven steps for small businesses. How do you earn trust from your customers? What methods do you employ to engage users? How do you gain authority in your niche? Share your ideas with the rest of us. Engage!
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I think the cess pool itself
I think the cess pool itself is not the internet, but like any other medium it's the content and users that spring up from folks that make rhe world a cess pool in many respects as the real world...the internet just becomes another usefull tool to expoit just like those offline do..except you can do it cheaper.
You have main stream businesses still being more concerned with corporate image than they are about staying in business...when your business is failing sometimes you better be ready to do things to save it which means utilizing areas of this cesspool to try to save your business...
Google Created the Cess in the Pool
No one seems to mention that the reason there is a cess pool is Google!
On everyone of their searches they rank made for adsense sites from their web farm affiliates programs on top. Each of these Google related sites links to the next in an awful spiral of garbage sites.
If Google was just a search engine there would not be as many spam sites trying to pass google advertising. We just built out a site City Psychics filled with content and no Google advertising. A much better site for everyone.
Once Google started the secret advertising bidding programs the cess started. When money is given to unregulated sites who are rewarded with more money for links the goal is laid out - make as much cess as you can to get your pool filled. Let google split off its advertising web farm and be just a search and things might change. As long as Google profits from the spam sites it will keep them on top.
You have to play by the King's rules
Google is King.
South Georgia Classifieds
It's the System
It's a cesspool because Eric Schmidt says it a cesspool. If he called it Utopia 3 billion people will think thats true. The problem with the internet is it's a community of followers. The leaders make money, start trends, and everyone else follows. If google wanted to change the system all they have to do is keep their opinions to themselves, let people make up their own minds. What would the internet look like if everyone didn't think content or links is the way to a number one listing on google. You would see more originality.
It is Google itself that
It is Google itself that thrives on the cesspool of the internet.
He calls the internet a
He calls the internet a cesspool but he does not offer insights to quality content providers. I don’t think he is serious about cleaning it up, avoiding questions about how publishers could improve their ranking with Google Search.
cesspool
Of course the internet is a cesspool. You have anybody and everybody with internet access saying whatever they want just by pounding on the keyboard. You have webmasters throwing up websites riddled with BS information in hopes for an adwords click. Not to mention the idiots that employ viruses, scrapes, cloaking, spamming, and the like. By calling the internet a cesspool I would have to agree. Actually I think the Schmidt's description is quite humorous. Google certainly has their hands full filtering through all the garbage in order to present their users with good, credible, reliable, and unique information.
Who gave Google permission to dictate?
Google should not judge ANYTHING!
Who appointed Google as judge???
That is NOT Google's function at all.
If someone wants to find rubbish.com, than Google should search it out and display the results - Period!
Google has NO right or function to say what is good or bad on the net.
It is MERELY a Search Engine and should NOT be anything else!
Maybe we should all ignore Google and NOT use Google anymore?
Then Google would itself become a "cesspool" and also "rubbish"! LOL
cesspool
For all of us to stop using google is like i tell other people we dont need to drive cars or buy gas but try walking everywhere you go. The truth is the web has been a rubish dump for a long time with misleading ads and material that we would not show our kids but that is old fashioned i guess. I feel like what google is talking about is very true, and hey they are nothing but a search engine, just try and spread that rubish around without them and one more thing they are free to use if you wish to do so and as long as the #1 search engine is free i guess they dont have to list any site if they choose not to. I recently listened to a web video feed from another search engine on how we can get by without google but the one thing i remeber is the name google must have been mentioned a dozen times in ten minutes so i guess you are right if you dont mind walking every where you go and using your mail box to access millions of people everyweek you dont need google.
ABUSE OF TECHNOLOGY & SHOWING OFF
You lot REALLY need to STOP the page whizzing down to the bottom. We all know there is a comments option down there. All you are achieving with this flash nonsense is CLIENT IRRITATION. This a shame because your contents is worth a read now and then. Wise up - its worse than those pop-over/under things that drive customers away quickfast and yet PLAGUE the commercial pages. When will THEY ever learn eh?
Search engines drove the content bubble
If we did not have search engines, website owners would not be playing the content creation and linking game in order to be found in them.
The incentive to create content for content’s sake is one of the big reasons why the web is a cesspool.
We had the dotcom bubble. We are currently seeing the wreckage of the credit bubble. In the future, the gurus with 20/20 hindsight will be analysing the web content bubble.
Less is more. In the long run, quality will beat quantity.
My corner of this Cesspool
As a directory owner I see a lot of submissions from many sites. Don't rely on a bot, like some. At least I check each submissions to insure they are usable, and offer a good user experience.
Even though Google thinks directories are irrelevant, some of us do try to keep our little corner of the cesspool clean. And do what we can to help maintain quality and relevant content.
And just like Google charges for keywords, I charge for position in the directory. I need to put food on the table also.
Like any good store owner I like to think the content of my site is quality and work to maintain it.
And ok I don't have venture capital to build brand, but it doesn't mean the quality is less. In some ways its better because I have passion and commitment. I don't live by the algorithm, with me its all personal, I see, I touch, I use, the human experience.
what is a brand?
what is a brand?
Its a way of charging $300 for exactly the same shirt that costs $2 except its got a 'brand' name sewn onto it.
A brand is an internationally well known company and therefore must be trusted above any mom and pop business. Enron is such an example.
The economy is in a revolution and first against the wall will be 'brands' and all its scamsters who support them.
Comment
Being right is just part of it. Applying what uou know is right to your own business is also important.
wondeful? cesspool?
wondeful? cesspool? perception perception perception...............
Google is King?
Whatever happened to Microsoft being the evil warlord? Why is everyone beating up one person who works for Google and calling it THE gospel.
Of course the internet is a cesspool. A cesspool of everyone's opinion, just like the corner bar on a Thursday night. Or the cesspool we still call the nightly news. At least with the internet you can get three or three hundred opinions and use YOUR brain to make an informed decision instead of having some talking head tell you what to think.
Internet cess pool
Great article. Point to be noted about not only quality content but relevancy of the content,
Student Loans
Yep Content is king
Sucks for your Google Stock
Dear "Mr Google CEO"
We are sorry that you cant get your "manicure" done this week or go to a fancy resort for the weekend due to your stocks "fall from heaven" but trying to take it out on the web or webmasters is wrong and you know it.
You guys purposely screwed up websites PR and rankings so that those "web dollars" would get deverted to "adwords" but as you can see it didnt help any and you only showed your true colors and googles.
You might want to ask if that "golden parachute" is still available as that stock and the lifestyle you where so accustomed to is slipping away really fast...
Love Always
Just Greedy
The Internet is a Cesspool
It is unfortunate and all to true that the internet is indeed a cesspool. The reasons for this simple, it's easy to get online, simple to say or do what ever you want and often do so while being anyonomous. In traditional business cost and competition provide a barrier to entry .
Being dishonest devious or mischevious all require more effort offline. There is also a greater chance of being caught out or called out for misdeeds. However online, anyone from professional crooks to kids playing around can hide themselves in one fashion or another and reek havoc at will and often with impunity.
On the internet opinion can quickly become gospel when mis-truths, misinformation or dis-information are taken at face value by those to lazy or dim witted to actually investigate what they read or see. The truth is rarely as sexy or interesting as something fabricated to entrap the greedy or guilable.
There have always been miscreants and malcontents in society. The internet simply makes it easier and faster for those types to do their dirty work, locally and across the face of the globe.
When reading anything online it's obvious that care and caution are the two most important princpals everyone should observe.
This Cesspool We Call the Internet
Considering google among others are responsible for creating the 'cesspool', isnt that comment a bit like biting the hand that feeds you Mr Schmidt?
Dont many of the lower ranked sites pay millions of $ into googles adwords program to get exposure. surely if google was serious about cleaning up the web they would ditch the adwords program?
erm
"The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday."
Does that mean Google will not keep ranking Wikipedia for everything under the sun?.
Cesspool or not, I love the
Cesspool or not, I love the Internet and I love Google!
RE:
Google has finally realised
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.
In this case "relevant" has
In this case "relevant" has become a weasel word. There is perhaps a connection between brands and "authority", but in way is there a particular connection between brand and relevance. Relevance has everything to do with the quality of information and absolutely nothing to do with branding.
As others have said, Google is basically an intelligent directory, and it is not their role or place to tell us about the state of the internet.
relevance v branding
I agree that relevance may have no connection with branding.
There's a lot of big branded companies that are full of weasels that are dumping their ways and will on us.
This country is made up of primarily small businesses, and the majority of large branded companies started small, so let's not discount alternative voices just because they're not behemoths.
I think the people at Google must know this--otherwise why would they want everyone to use their products?
Innovation is what will keep us alive, and that happens before the branding, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Branding is not coorrelated with relevance. It may coexist sometimes, especially in the beginning, but usually at product maturity, the relevance is way gone before the brand is...
relevance v branding
I agree that relevance may have no connection with branding.
There's a lot of big branded companies that are full of weasels that are dumping their ways and will on us with a lot of crap we don't need and telling us it's good for us...
This country is made up of primarily small businesses, and the majority of large branded companies started small, so let's not discount alternative voices just because they're not behemoths.
I think the people at Google must know this--otherwise why would they want everyone to use their products?
Innovation is what will keep us alive and ahead of the curve, and that happens before the branding, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Branding is not coorrelated with relevance.
It may coexist sometimes, especially as something "catches on", but usually at product maturity, the relevance is way gone before the brand is...
you people are idiots. Plain
you people are idiots. Plain and simple. Wake up sheeple!
lol!
That 'cesspit' has made him a very wealthy man!
I would call it a pretty awesome cesspit myself!"
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