a/k

Google is evil

I've always had this sense that anyone with this much power is evil. And even though there are well documented arguments (Google Watch, Gmail is too Creepy, and Scroogle) about the dubious tactics of Google, I've never done anything too crazy such as refusing to use Google products. I do use Yahoo for search, as I have found it to be more accurate.

About two years ago, the official Google blog announced a "solution" to blog spam in the form of a hyperlink attribute. Yahoo and MSN quickly gave their support in a measure that effectively disabled search-engine friendly backlinks in most blog comment sections.

Here's the scoop in plain language. For example, if you create a basic link in html, it'll look something like this:

<a href="http://www.artkauffman.com/">Art Kauffman</a>

On the other hand, with the Google attribute, the link will look something like this:

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.artkauffman.com/">Art Kauffman</a>

This attribute will tell every single search engine that the website displaying the link most definitely does not endorse the link. As a result, they will not index the link as having been linked by that website. So how does this play into fighting spam?

Google claims that when this attribute is integrated into blog commenting systems, blog spammers will begin to lessen their blog spam because of the realization that that link will not help them in search engine rankings. By default, any comment that you submit on a Wordpress blog will be tagged with a "nofollow" link.

It's time to fight back. We little bloggers have a hard enough time getting high SEO scores (if that is indeed our objective). Our communal approach to the Internet has led to an increasing number of blog results in search engines. How much more would our page rank be improved if every quality comment we left on someone else's site counted as a backlink?

Spam control such as Askimet and Spam Karma 2 are a much better defense to blog spam from Wordpress blogs than an indiscriminate attribute. In lieu of all this, I've decided to use and promote the Wordpress plugin called DoFollow. It will strip all your comments of the "nofollow" attribute after a specified number of days, allowing Google and other search engines to index the backlink. Thanks Kimmo!

Unless you have some brilliant idea about why we should be using "nofollow", then go ahead and do the blogging community a favor and install DoFollow on your blog. Any thoughts?