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September 4, 2008
Sugarrae: Google Pushed Twitter To NoFollow All Links?
While the rest of the world was distracted by the launch of Chrome, Sugarrae aka Rae Hoffman - definitely a woman who "pulls rank" - was covering the nofollowing of links over at Twitter at the behest of Google.
Her argument is powerful and once again challenges Google for pushing sites to do what they want. As she asks:
"If Google is the one who wants that web link nofollowed because some twitter profile pages may be automated bots or spammers, then it is time they realize that THEY are responsible for determining which of those individual pages is authoritative, trusted and legitimate enough to pass link popularity, by a method other than demanding that other websites and social networks change the ways they do business to help Google stop links being used as a form of currency and to manipulate their algorithm - an issue Google and Google alone created and profited from."
This should be read by everyone in our industry. Leave the shiny new browser alone for a few minutes and see where our futures are going. Thanks for not being distracted by Chrome.
Posted by Frank Watson on September 4, 2008 5:09 PM
Comments
I agree it should be upto the site or its members to decide something like nofollow - not for Google to dictate. There are better ways to stop spam than to use nofollow.
Peter White September 5, 2008 4:41 AM
Putting links in the bio section was at best a hack that was using the field in a different way it was intended. The website field were you are supposed to put a link in has always been no-followed. Complaining that twitter closed an obvious loop hole and blaming Google for it seems a little absurd. If its really an issue, ask Twitter to make the URL in the profile do-follow.
MarkEdmondson September 5, 2008 7:44 AM
I think, Peter White is right... "it should be upto the site or its members to decide something like nofollow - not for Google to dictate."
Junaid September 10, 2008 2:54 AM
Exactly, If google wants all links to be nofollow why dont it modify its crawlers dedicated to twitter. Surely they have dedicated crawlers to these sites and just adding a nofollow tag to the content it grabs should not be problem compared to asking other system to be compatible to their codes.
freecheese September 29, 2008 4:39 AM
