Google's Brave Net Web

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Subject: Google's Brave Net Web
> To: dave () farber net
>
>
> I thought you might be interested to share what appears to be Google's 
> newest attempts to shape the World Wide Web to be more to its liking. My 
> company received the following from Google regarding a client's website 
> for which we had purchased Google AdWords:
>
> > Action taken: Suspended - Pending Revision
> > Issue(s): Pop-Up
> > ~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------
> > Please read below for definitions of the issues we found:
> >
> > Pop-Up: Our Editorial Guidelines state that we do not allow links that
> > generate pop-ups when users enter or leave your site. We consider a
> > pop-up to be any window, regardless of size or content, that opens in
> > addition to the original window. Our experience is that pop-ups
> > decrease the efficiency of the information seeking process and
> > discourage users from clicking on ads. Once you remove the pop-up from
> > your site, please save your ad to resubmit it for review.
>
> [full text at end of message]
>
> The reason we purchased AdWords in the first place was because the site 
> had been banned from the Google index for what we believe were Google 
> Secret Policy "Hidden Text" violations, though you can never be sure since 
> they won't tell you.
>
> (For the record: the popup in question is a control panel for music that 
> plays while you browse this site. We chose a popup so that the music 
> controls would always be available for the user, and also to make it real 
> easy to get rid of the music: just close the popup. We also made sure, by 
> using a 1 pixel high "hidden" frame to pop the music window, that the 
> music would not restart or reload as you browsed.)
>
> Now, I'm sure I hate annoying popup windows as much as anyone, but I think 
> Google is seriously overstepping its place here. First of all, it is most 
> definitely possible to use popups in such a way as to improve and increase 
> the usability of a website. I point to the old Netflix site, where instead 
> of being forced off your page of search results each time you added a 
> movie to your rental queue, a popup instead appeared, informing you of of 
> the action, while leaving your search result page where it was so you 
> could easily add multiple movies. Alas, this functionality is gone now, as 
> Netflix got rid of its highly useful popup windows. (I wonder if Google 
> had anything to do with that?)
>
> Second of all, by Google trying to socially engineer the Web, Google 
> becomes much less of a useful, *objective* tool, and users suffer when 
> they cannot find a website they are looking for. Let the user decide 
> whether a site is worthwhile, despite the popups. (Or let the smart user 
> employ a smart browser like Mozilla and its Netscape derivative or similar 
> tool and block the popups, if they so choose). At the very least, keep the 
> site available, but flag it (even though this would still lead to 
> harassment of perfectly useful popups, like those of the Netflix of yore).
>
> There is something seriously wrong with the Google index if I search for 
> the name of a specific company, like that of our client, and I get pages 
> of links that mention the company, but I do not get the one link I was 
> probably looking for, namely the website of the company itself.
>
>
> When our client's site was initially banned, I wrote the attached essay. 
> Feel free to use it if you think it is appropriate.
>
> Finally, I can't help but notice that your home page (which I found 
> through a quick "google") automatically plays sound when you load it (my 
> wife couldn't help but notice it either as your WHYY interview suddenly 
> issued forth from the computer speakers, waking her up :-) -- I wonder how 
> long before the Google Web Police crack down on *your* site?
>
> --
>                  ' ",      *
> Karl Wagenfuehr       ,        "Weisst du, wieviel Sternlein stehen an dem
> karl.wagenfuehr.net   ,  '     blauen Himmelszelt?"  --Deutsches Volkslied
>                        '


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