Archive for October, 2007
shot down by the google pagerank snipers
It seems the Pagerank Update is over (for me anyway). The datacenters are showing equal numbers, the toolbar PR isn’t changing, so that’s confirmation for me.
Despite getting my PR3 stripped from me, and given a PR2, this update hasn’t been *too* bad across my network of sites, but i’m really disappointed with this blog’s rank as it’s the only site i maintain on a daily basis and put all my energy in to.
- mygadgetinfo was under serious threat. Not only was it selling links, but i’d also messed about with templates and deleted huge amounts of material from it, so i thought i’d be lucky to get any PR at all. Turns out it’s gotten a PR3
- theleavingcert.com has also gotten a PR3. That’s grand, no change, but it’s also gotten loads of inner PR 3 pages so it’s now a very strong PR3 and with more love should be able to hit a PR4 on the next update.
- jpegr has always been a solid PR4, it’s stayed that way despite me selling text-link-ads on it.
- yourseoniche has gotten a PR3. Incredible That entire blog has a total of 9 articles. None of them have been dugg or linked to much, all basic articles with very few incoming links.
So let’s compare yourseoniche.com with smemon.com and you tell me which deserves the higher PR 
yourseoniche.com has 9 posts.
smemon.com has 650 posts.
yourseoniche.com has 13 pages indexed in google.
smemon.com has 667 pages indexed in google.
yourseoniche has 5 links according to google. (all from smemon.com)
smemon.com has 20 links according to google.yourseoniche has 389 backlinks according to yahoo.
smemon.com has 3600 backlinks according to yahoo.
yourseoniche’s last article is dated may 2007 (almost 6 months ago).
smemon.com has been updated daily bar about 5 days during that time.
People say content is king – not in google’s eyes anymore. I know quality should be rewarded over quantity – rightly so, but come on… yourseoniche.com is not more valuable than smemon.com for a reader/browser. An idiot can tell that.
What i’d love to know is why i was ranked at a 3, then shot down to a 2, then a 4, then back to a 2? Yesterday, a good 40% of pagerank datacentres i checked said my blog was a PR4, which is why i thought it was heading that way – where else would the PR4 come from and why???
Pagerank is getting into dangerous territory imo.. TylerCruz’s blog is not of the same quality as yourseoniche – that’s an insult to Tyler. Yet according to pagerank, it is. Likewise with my own blog.
If pagerank is in fact becoming a false value/representation of a sites quality, then Google are effectively killing it or diluting the whole pagerank system and the value webmasters/advertisers attach to it.
Sour grapes from me? Yeah, probably, but there’s a serious side to this article and it’s highlighted in the last sentence. The bigger Google become, the more hated they will become imo. By acting as the internet police, they are doing themselves no favours and we’re getting very close to a form of internet dictatorship where Google rule all and any sort of big shot blogger/webmaster who challenges the system is shot down on sight.
That is basically what happened with John Chow. He was taken out by the Google snipers for climbing over the Google walls, and his followers were also taken out by the Google snipers to rid the internet of breakaway/revolutionary thinking.
Apologies for the lack of updates over the past few days, i’ve been away in Dublin, plus my other half was off work so i couldn’t slip away to a PC much 
Mind you, i’m glad i didn’t have much time online to due the whole pagerank shenanigans that’s going on with my blog
It’s great to get away.. it just gives you something to look forward to, something different, something new..
Although i hate leaving my blog and laptop behind for a few days, it does actually do me good as i’m able to clear my mind and relax a bit more. It also gives me some stuff to blog about when i get home
So how did it go? Well, we went to the Zoo, then shopping to Dundrum Town Centre, then just chilled out in our hotels. I’ll review the two hotels seperately..
The Clarion hotel was ok. Modern, clean, pretty, but lacked any x factor. At €150/night, i was disappointed to be honest. It had a leisure centre, ok, must hotels in the city don’t. But apart from that, it was overpriced imo.
On the other hand, The Hilton Kilmainham was without doubt, one of the top hotels i’ve ever stayed in, and believe me, i’ve stayed in quite a few 
It’s only open 6 months or so, so everything is super clean/modern/cool. It’s out of the way a bit, but only a 5 minute stroll to a LUAS stop so no big deal.
We arrived to find the hotel had no rooms free, this was at 3.30pm 
I wasn’t impressed as check in is normally 2/3pm so they had no excuses. Receptionist was sound. No bullshitting, he basically said “Yeah, we fecked up, hands up, i’m sorry”. I respected him for that and this stuff happens, so i told him it was no problem, we’d grab a snack in the bar as we were starving anyway. So he then offered us free drinks AND a free meal 
So that was a good start. About €40 worth of food/drink for free, plus our room was free in like 15 minutes, so we didn’t have to wait long at all. Up we went to the room after about 5 minutes of fecking about trying to get the lift working It’s one of those lifts where you have to put in your key card to activate it. Very fancy I found out you weren’t supposed to leave it in, just insert/remove quickly, THEN press the button. Ah… simple mistake.
The room was fabulous. No complaints. Big, modern, airy… nice big LCD, loads of lights, marble bathroom, leather headboard… luxury. One of the nicest rooms i’ve had the pleasure of staying in. The hotel also had a leisure centre, so we went down to the pool. It’s not actually a pool, more a hydrotherapy pool/series of pools with loads of jets and power sprays. It was different, but nice.
So overall, we felt wanted/appreciated by the Hilton hotel and just another number by the Clarion hotel. And that’s the big difference. Little things like not having the mini bar fully stocked (even though i’d never buy anything out of it) annoyed me about the Clarion hotel. The lack of plasma/lcd also annoyed me as it shows a real money saving attitude. An LCD might cost €400. Over 3 or 4 stays you’d make it back, plus leave a consumer like me with a better experience.
Clarion IFSC hotel is an overpriced hotel that doesn’t deliver. In fact, i’d say the Comfort Inn Smithfield was a nicer/reasonable hotel for almost half the price. 7/10 for the Clarion. You seem to be paying for the location (on the river liffey and in the heart of ‘suits’ as i call them – the financial areas).
The Hilton Kilmainham is top notch. A bit of a spin out of the city, but well worth it. I’ll be heading back there should i need a hotel in Dublin in the future. Simple as that. Reasonably priced, large, spacious, nice and modern with that touch of luxury throughout and of course the nice staff. 10/10
The Google Pagerank Update to a blogger/webmaster is basically like that Christmas/Santa Clause feeling you got when you were a kid.
If you’ve been good, you’ll get a good PR or certainly improved PR. If you’ve been bad, you’ll get a decrease in PR or no PR at all.
The likes of Becky, LordBloggit, Walsho, Dave etc.. (first few blogs i checked in my blogroll) have all been good boys/girls and have been given a brand new, shiney PageRank of 2/3. Congrats to them on that, it’s a nice reward for months of hard work.
On the other hand, the bad boys/girls of the blogging world have been punished by the Google Santa. John Chow is the ring leader of the bad boys and almost single handedly, had the Pagerank system in meltdown
Not surprisingly, Santa doesn’t like to be beaten and pushed aside by some little blogger, so Santa has taken away Mr. Chow’s toys as punishment. Tyler has also been hit hard along with Ades.
This pagerank update has been the toughest yet for link-happy webmasters/bloggers. I don’t think anyone will deny that. Although it might not be over, it *looks* like i’ll come out of it with a PR4 and under the circumstances, i’ll be delighted with that. That’s still not confirmed though, so i know more than anyone not to take anything Google for granted
What use is Pagerank? Well, the debate goes on, and now, the way we look at Pagerank will have to change. It’s no longer a way to make a quick buck; if you do that, you’ll be slapped in the next update. So for me, along with other bloggers and webmasters, i’ll have to think long and hard about how to view pagerank and improve it for the next update.
It’s no longer a matter of just getting incoming links… you can’t buy those links or participate in link bait schemes, therefore it’s incredibly difficult to get people to link to you, unless they do it naturally. That’s the way it should be imo, but it begs the question if pagerank is a ‘value’ or measure of a site’s quality, but we can’t make money from it, doesn’t that render it useless for 99% of people?
Not quite, as pagerank does hold some weight when it comes to SEO. So that’s why it’s still valuable. It’s also a pride thing. Nobody likes to see their site statistics/value going down. If it’s on the up, that gives you confidence and sense of achievement which spurs you on further.
A few days ago, i was bitch slapped by the pagerank boys at google, going from a PR3 to a PR2..
Today, they’ve given me some love and doubled my pagerank to a PR4.
Nice surprise, but let’s not get carried away until i know for sure the dust has settled on this update.
I love blogging. I have done since day 1. Would i have kept a diary if i was born 50 years ago? Probably not as i hate reading and writing (pen and paper).
Almost a year in, and i feel i’ve progressed as a writer, a blogger, a thinker. I think more about what i post more and probably edit a post about 10 times before i’ll publish it.
But blogs can’t last forever, i can’t last forever. Well, i suppose they could be passed down through generations, but what happens if i die today or just stop blogging or retire? Will this blog go to the website cemetery? Will it stay online, but no new content added?
I’d be a real idiot if i didn’t renew my domain and hosting every year, having built up over 600 posts and a huge wealth of knowledge, not to mention traffic and subscribers etc…
But no doubt the day will come when i stop blogging – for whatever reason. I wouldn’t like to just let my blog and domain die, and only be available at archive.org, i’d prefer if someone else carried it on.. preferably my children/grandchildren
My blog could then become a family business, building up relationships and followers from different generations, in all different countries. Imagine getting given a blog like John Chow’s by your father in his will… it would be very special, and full of sentimental value and interesting material to look back on and read…
We are the first generation of bloggers, and it’ll be another 20/30 years before we start to see this sort of thing happening. It might not happen at all, but it’s something i’d like to see… blogs being passed along through generations like wedding dresses or watches etc
Think of the value of a 50 year old blog, with say 300 posts a year – that’s 15,000 unique posts. It would be worth a fortune if the blogger in question was famous/became famous. Just think how much Einstein’s blog would be worth if he had blogged for 20/30 years, then passed it on in his will and it was still going strong today…
