This link has been bookmarked by 35 people . It was first bookmarked on 12 Apr 2009, by Alvin Tan.
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Those who argue that Google is a friend to content owners because it sends them traffic overlook the basic law of supply and demand. The value of “traffic” is entirely relative. The more content there is on the web, the less value that content has — because of the surfeit of ad inventory and abundance of free alternatives to paid content — and thus the less value “traffic” has.
The more content there is on the web, the less money every content creator makes, and the more money Google makes by taking a piece of that transaction.
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Google makes money less by its ability to display that snipet of content and much more by its ability to know that snipet of content is relevant to what the content consumer is looking for — it makes money by its ability to efficiently distribute that content.
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The greatest irony of the web content economy is that Google by itself doesn’t have a clue what content is good or bad. Google is able to deliver relevant search results only because every site on the web helps them figure it out.
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It’s the links, stupid. And everyone gives Google their links to read — for free!!
Google doesn’t really need your content, because there’s plenty more where it came from. What Google really needs is your links, i.e. your votes for content — it needs your help separating the wheat from the chaff on the web.
The backlash against URL shorteners and site framing (e.g. DiggBar) is all about who controls the links, and which links Google is going to read and credit.
The key to Google’s monopoly control over content distribution on the web is its ability to judge what’s most relevant in an increasingly large sea of content.
If media companies want to compete with Google, they need to look at the source of its power — judging good content, which enables Google to be the most efficient and effective distributor of content. They also need to look at Google’s fundamental limitation — its judgment is dependent on OTHER people expressing their judgment of content in the form of links. Above all, they need to look at sources of content judgment that Google currently can’t access, because they are not yet expressed as links on the web.
The balance of power on the web can shift — but only by understanding what the real sources of power are.
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barb dybwadThe debate over whether Google’s excerpting content on its search result pages is a violation of copyright law, i.e. whether Google is effectively stealing content, overlooks the much more valuable asset that Google is appropriating. Google makes money less by its ability to display that snipet of content and much more by its ability to know that snipet of content is relevant to what the content consumer is looking for — it makes money by its ability to efficiently distribute that content.
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12 Apr 09
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jlackeycnsThere is so much misunderstanding flying around about the economics of content on the web and the role of Google in the web's content economy that it's making my head hurt. So let's see if we can straighten things out. Google isn't stealing content from newspapers and other media companies.
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Martin Stabe"The debate over whether Google’s excerpting content on its search result pages is a violation of copyright law, i.e. whether Google is effectively stealing content, overlooks the much more valuable asset that Google is appropriating. Google makes money l
google newspapers shorturls links googleenvy deliciousimport
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Virginie Clayssen"If media companies want to compete with Google, they need to look at the source of its power — judging good content, which enables Google to be the most efficient and effective distributor of content. They also need to look at Google’s fundamental limita
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rickmansThere is so much misunderstanding flying around about the economics of content on the web and the role of Google in the web’s content economy that it’s making my head hurt. So let’s see if we can straighten things out.
Google isn’t stealing content fromgoogle economics media business advertising information search filtering
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Gary BurgeGoogle isn’t stealing content from newspapers and other media companies. It’s stealing their control over distribution, which has always been the engine of profits in media.
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