Ed Felten makes an interesting point in Googlocracy, that people who complain about things like googlebombs affecting PageRank and such are whining over nothing, but I think Felten misses a big piece with the following:
The web authors have a certain number of Google-votes, and they are casting those votes as they think best. Who are we to complain? They may be foolish to spend their votes that way, but they are entitled to do so.
Web authors, as a practical matter, really don’t have a “certain,” or limited, number of links but are essentially unlimited in the sense that almost any of us have the time to add one or two more links on any given day. Which means millions of links, in the aggregate, and nothing in the software or publishing process really limits this. So adding a link for a googlebombing or other group purposes can not be considered foolish in the sense Felten intends, as the expenditure of a scarce resource.
Later: Joe sent an email spanking me for misspelling the professor’s last name (Felten, as I’ve corrected this post to read, rather than my original Felton). Of course, this more or less ruins the pun in the title leaving me all a-tizzy. What to do, what to do…
BillSaysThis 