Search Engines Leech Value from Web Sites

bigenchilada writes "Jakob Nielsen, former Sun Distinguished Engineer and now usability guru, proposes "that search engines are sucking out too much of the Web's value, acting as leeches on companies that create the very source materials the search engines index." He says that the value provided by search engines may be tilting too much in favor of the search engines. The web sites that create content are now simply fodder for the search engines' revenue stream."

Don't like it?

[Mattygfunk1]

... then learn to use robots.txt. Simple really.

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Participation in search engines 100% voluntary

[JehCt]

Here's a one tag solution for that "problem."

<meta name="robots" content="nofollow, noindex">

Go for it if you dare.

Symbiotic Relationship

[tylers]

The relationship between web sites and search engines is symbiotic, or specifically a type of symbiotic relationship called Mutualism [wikipedia.org] where both sides benefit.

The search engine benefits from the ad revenue; the sites benefit from the increase in visitors. Both sides win.

Re:Wikipedia

[CaptSnuffy]

Yes, definitely. I use wikipedia for things that I actually want accurate information for. Wikipedia isn't perfect but it'll get you good results without you having to sift through links. P.S. Firefox haas a built in Wikipedia search tool. If you do "wp " in the address bar it'll try to match it. I love it.

Re:It is a symbiant relationship

[ceoyoyo]

His problem doesn't even seem to be with search engines but with pay for click advertising that happens to be on said search engines. The entire article talks as if you go to a search engine, type in your query and then click on the sponsored links. Maybe some people do this... I don't. He's not talking about content either, but rather e-commerce.

Guess what... if you and all your competitors start making big profits and they decide to invest in advertising, they're going to get more customers than you do, unless you match their advertising investment. That's not unique to search engines.

Oh, and if you want more return business, how about making a quality product, or good service? Newsletters, affiliate programs, hardware lock-in... all the things he suggests are examples of the PROBLEM with a lot of business today.

Pay per click advertisers must hate me. If I ever click on a sponsored link it's just to see what their price is so I can go find the same thing cheaper via regular search results on a site that isn't quite so caught up in the ad race.