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My Google Wish List
My Google Wish List
By Sharon Housley
There are a number of "wishes" that I have for Google's
future. While I would like number one ranking for all
of my important keywords and phrases, but I would be
willing to settle for Google acknowledging at least
a few of my wishes that will benefit the search community
as a whole.
Google started out as the beloved child,
a fledgling start up that was all heart, and today they
are a "hated" brand. Why the fall from grace? In some
ways Google is a victim of the too big, too powerful,
and too successful affliction that attacks companies
that achieve a level of success that few companies dream
of. Now that does not mean that I am giving them a pass,
they have room to improve and I really do not hate them.
I just think there is a lot of areas they could improve.
I sat down and wrote an open letter to
Google about my wishes and dreams for their future:
Dear Google,
Please consider the following for areas of improvement.
1. Usenet and RSS.
Please, I'm begging, (groveling if it will help) create
RSS feeds for Google Groups keyword searches. Think
of the value, you could monitor Usenet for company or
product names using RSS feeds. This would be an extremely
easy way for businesses (and Google users) to stay in
tune with what is being said on Usenet and in forums
about specific topics.
2. Privacy Policy.
Clarify Google's privacy policy, and tell me EXACTLY
how you are going to use the aggregate data you collect.
While most of us realize that the personal information
collected is of little value, the aggregate data is
extremely valuable. Google is an extremely powerful
company, and this collective data gives them a huge
advantage in negotiating acquisitions or determining
trends. Many of us respect Google, its size and power,
but do not necessarily want to contribute to Google's
additional growth. Implement a way for customers wishing
to pay a fee, to opt not to have their data aggregated
or tracked.
3. Protect Your Customers.
For goodness sake, don't make it so easy for people
to rip off software companies. Why do you suggest cracks
or serials on the Google Suggest tool? Please help protect
the intellectual property of your customers!
http://labs.google.com/suggest
4. Stop Tracking Everything I do!
I login in to Writely (now Google Docs) and feel as
if I am being stalked, you monitor searches, you monitor
tracking through analytics, you monitor advertising
through Google Adwords, you monitor money earned as
a publisher through Google AdSense, and now you have
connected many of the accounts together. Please give
users a little privacy, or the ability to easily manage
multiple logins.
5. Tell Me How Much I Make!
Clearly tell publishers what percentage range they can
expect to receive when they serve AdSense on their content
websites. Now, I understand that it might vary publisher
to publisher, but disclose a range. Or at the very least,
consider adopting a model similar to Amazon's where
publishers percentage of revenue earned is based on
their volume.
6. Google Alert via RSS.
The current Google alert system is from the 1990's (figuratively
speaking) please offer an option to receive Google alerts
via RSS feeds. I know you can setup a Google News search
using RSS, it seems silly that it is not available via
Google Alerts. http://www.google.com/alerts
7. Faster Blog Indexing.
Google is all about search, right? Why are they so slow
at indexing blogs? In fact the Google blog search performs
far worse than many of the blog specific search engines.
Search should be Google's strength instead of a weakness.
Even the breadth of blogs searched, and the related
blogs listed on Google's blog search are on the thin
side. Definitely room for improvement in this area.
http://blogsearch.google.com
8. Same Rules.
I wish that the rules were the same for all AdSense
publishers regardless of the revenue that they produced.
In talking with publishers, it is clear that there are
a different set of standards, based on the revenue produced
or traffic that a website receives. Keep the playing
field even, if someone is using a subversive tactic,
they should have be penalized regardless of their revenue.
9. Combat 2nd Generation Fraud.
What is second generation fraud? Fraudsters bid high
for AdWords, what they are paying for keywords or phrasing
is irrelevant, because the credit card they are using
is fraudulent. They make legitimate affiliate sales
through the website and profit from their "free" traffic.
Google should help connect the dots on these sites,
and ban the websites from their organic index.
10. Drop DMOZ.
Please either drop the Google Dmoz directory listings,
or pay to staff DMOZ with reputable editors who can
keep up. The Dmoz listings are hopelessly outdated and
not reflective of current websites.
11. Protect Copyrights / Trademarks.
Google seems to flip-flop on the issue of allowing competitors
to bid on branded words in their AdWords accounts. The
current policy appears to be, that competitors cannot
use a trademark in the advertisement, but competitors
can still bid on trademarked terms. A company Google's
size should have more respect for trademarks. I really
wish Google would stand firm on the issue of trademarks
and prevent competitors from bidding on the terms.
12. Bury the Sandbox.
Dispose of the sandbox or aging delay, or heck get rid
of both. Face it, valuable websites are created every
day. The Internet is fluid and valuable websites should
not be penalized because of their youth. The sandbox
and aging delay, may deter spam sites, but there must
be a better way.
13. Let Me Be Anonymous!
Why do you need my personal information? Does it really
matter in the big scheme of everything that Google does?
Why do you require my personal information?
14. Stop Putting US Companies at a
Disadvantage.
Canadian and non-US companies can setup literally hundreds
of AdSense publisher accounts, yet US companies are
tracked using tax ID numbers hence they can only have
one account.
15. Weigh Wikipedia Less.
Lets face it, ANYONE can edit Wikipedia. The information
read in Wikipedia might be accurate one day and incorrect
the next. Wikipedia is a nice resource, but is not a
reliable indicator of information. Please do not use
links from Wikipedia to indicate a sites worth. Wikipedia
uses the same model as Dmoz which has languished, volunteers
can only do so much.
16. Make an RSS Search Engine.
Why hasn't Google done this? I am baffled. The blog
search engine is not an RSS search engine, consider
the power of being able to search ALL RSS feeds. There
are a number of small RSS search engine portals available
but there is not a clear leader, this is where Google
could and should be.
17. Stop Buying Companies.
Stop the purchasing, Google is big enough already. Finish
all the things that Google has started. Keep in mind
that while the archives on the Internet might last forever,
it is rare that companies retain power and clout for
any length of time. Remember Infoseek, or Altavista?
Focus on your strengths.
While my Google wish list might seem trivial,
these are all things that Google could do to earn their
way back into my good graces.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
NotePage http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company.
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