Traffics Dirty Secret

Are you aiding and abetting in a Crime?

Sorry to be so dramatic but have you ever thought about what the search engines do as their core business?

They provide results because of the content from your website.

Have you ever told them that they could do this? Of course not. But just like a crack whore on a Saturday night we want more of what they got. Gimme some Google traffic please. And I will give you some links and more content baby. "I'll link you really good for that traffic. YEAH!" lol

But think about it. What other company could take another persons publishing's and publish it for their own profit? They are using yours and my website for their content. Heck they even cache it.

But for those precious visitors we have turned a blind eye towards any accusations of our Copyrights being Infringed.

Death of a Spider?

But now a Belgium Court is now forbidding Google from indexing Belgian newspaper content without paying each newspaper for the use of their content. Kinda fries the whole system don't it?

The ruling requires Google to remove newspaper content from its search engine database . They must also publish “in a visible and clear manner and without any commentary ....the entire intervening judgment on the home pages of ‘google.be’ and of ‘news.google.be’ .

I think this is only the beginning. So what happens when the newspapers sue Google, and then find they no longer exist in the Google database at all! Is it their Divine Right to be in the Google Index?

We will see how this logic takes shape. Many up and coming content providers are sure to face these challenges. A case in point are the new Propsmart/Trulia type engines. They are using MLS content that they may scrape, get uploaded by agents, or they possibly upload themselves.

At some point we must ask where are the feeds coming from? Who owns it?

And won't it be interesting when Google scrapes the "scrapers" and not only de-positions the Real Estate Search engines in their normal Organic results. But also takes their data for Google Base?

Clearly these engines cannot exist based on brand name alone..After millions in seed Capital, I think I just gave some Angels a devilish reminder of what can very well happen in this Wild West we call the internet.

Comments

[monika]

Hi:

I just launched a new blog called housebuying-guide where I try to help
first time homebuyers and where I also give tips to avoid common mistakes
on buying houses.
I added a link to your blog on my sidebar, you can check it here:
http://www.housebuying-guide.com/

I just put the plain url address of your site but you can tell me what
text you want me to use for your site.

In exchange if it is not asking too much I would love that you also link
to my blog with the text "How to buy a house" for example.

If we exchange links we will both increase our popularity on the web.

Thanks for your time

Regards, Monika

[Risa and David Weiss]

Yeah, but you can always tell google to "buzz off" with a robots.txt file and you can remove all of google's links and index entries for your site, too.

So, a lawsuit seems kind of silly.

But they are making a ton of dough from your (and my own) hard work. I like the system the way it is - mutually beneficial.

[Tim O'Keefe]

David-
I agree the system works. But it is unprecedented that the obligation is on the owner to tell another publisher that he cannot use his/her material.Otherwise it is assumed that the other Publisher (in this case an engine) can literally copy the entire page of someones site.See Realtor.com
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:NEpn6vbUOR4J:www.realtor.com/+realtor&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
And, I don't think the laws are even close to having reconciled these issues because the lawmakers don't understand them. It is all based on cooperation.

Another example of what makes interesting bedfellows is RSS.

Many sites grab pieces of a blog and use it on their blog. I have had only one guy ask me if they can do it. Yet many do.

We all kind of let it happen in this spirit of mutual cooperation because we all benefit.

What happens though when we all don't benefit as much as we might like?