Topix to Google: "You Could've Given Us Help, But You've Given Us So Much More"
Published March 13, 2007
That quote - you could've given us help, but you've given us so much more - actually comes from the mouth of Bill Murray's character in Quick Change (one of the all-time underrated comedies) to a magnificently and contentedly unhelpful New York City taxi driver.
It could easily however have come from Topix CEO Rich Skrenta to the monolith that is Google. A Wall Street Journal piece details Skrenta's and Topix' frustration with Google over the company's change from a .net domain to the more popular .com. That change, on top of costing Topix $1 million in acquisition fees, may end up costing a lot more due to lost search engine traffic, the lion's share of which stems from Google.
It's painfully hilarious that the CEO of Topix, a pretty large and well known web company that reportedly receives 10 million visitors a month, received the following advice at a time when it could potentially lose millions of search-based visits: "...an email recommending that, if the switchover were to go badly, the company should post a message on an online user-support forum; a Google engineer might come along to help out."
Skrenta very rightly responded with, "'This can't be the process... You're cast into this amusing, Kafkaesque world to run your business.'"
A host of web publishers shares Skrenta's pain. Breaking through the layer of automated responses when attempting to contact Google is a Tolkien-esque quest that many have attempted and few have succeeded at. Because Google so tightly guards the nature of its search algorithm and system of "page ranking" web pages, it very rarely will dole out specific information about why a particular website moves up or down its search rankings.
Small variations in page rank can have an enormous effect on placement in Google's search rankings and effectively cause thousands or even millions of visitors to show up at a website. Or, in the case of the new Topix.com, potentially not.
Eric Berlin is the Executive Producer of Blogcritics.org and publisher of Online Media Cultist. He's also prone to referring to himself in the third person in author bios in an attempt to make it look like someone Less Important wrote it for him.
Contact: dumpsterbust@gmail.com
- Topix to Google: "You Could've Given Us Help, But You've Given Us So Much More"
- Published: March 13, 2007
- Type: News
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Culture: Business and Economics, Culture: Media, Sci/Tech: Blogging, Sci/Tech: Internet
- Part of a feature: Online Media Cultist
- Writer: Eric Berlin
- Eric Berlin's BC Writer page
- Eric Berlin's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Do you think that the Topix CEO would really tempt the (Google) Gods by throwing around terms like "Kafkaesque" in the media? I would think that would be the last PR things that you'd want to do!
But you're right -- it does seem as though changing the URL shouldn't be such a huge deal from the search side. Could the fact that it's a change from a .net to a .com be the cause of the fuss?
#1 kids are not interested in Viacom produced garbage -they prefer novelty and originality - clearly not Viacoms strengths
#2 YouTube viewers are not going to upload a 30 second snippet commercial and SO WE MUST ASK WHO IS ACTUALLY UPLOADING VIACOM CRAP ONTO YOUTUBE IN THE FIRST PLACE- COULD IT BE VIACOM ITSELF?
#3 who is actually loading these Viacom owned snippets onto YouTube in the first place - Viacom iself?
#4 since I don't believe Viacom garbage really interests kids in the first place, what % of overall hits are going to this Viacom owned garbage? I suspect it is actually a very small %.
Thanks kaye, but I think you meant to post this comment to the other Google (and YouTube) story I wrote today (smiles).
Even a reltively small percentage of illegal uploading and page views could result in a massive lawsuit, and in fact now has. I'm doubtful that Viacom would flood youtube with its own content for some nefarious purpose, but I've no doubt that they're looking for an advantageous deal to expand their digital offerings.
With my own site I've done very little to court Google traffic, because I don't want to be dependent on it.
I've got to think that in the long-term there will be a search engine that works without the entire universe having to continuously adapt to it.
Unfortunately, I think many publishers are dependent on Google whether they like it or not.
I think what you're talking about is a post-Google world, which doesn't look like it will be happening anytime soon. But who knows, things change quickly!
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/60990)
I'm actually really confused. A simple 301 redirect should ensure that all Google-juice transfers to the new domain. Any reports I've seen from people complaining that weird things happened seemed to be from people who didn't understand HTTP redirects, or had something else wrong.
I feel the severe pain of Google's apparent arbitrariness, believe me, but it does kind of seem like Topix *might* just be using this for free PR.
Why didn't I think of that? ;-)