AdAge recently reported the gripes of the media world over how Google’s results ranking system was burying major media companies “expensive professional content within the search engine’s undifferentiated slush of results.”
Nevermind the irony of how I am now attempting to do the same to AdAge, here are some reasons why I believe Google’s current PageRank algorithm is perfectly suitable.
Google is a for-profit business. It makes tons of profits selling Google AdWords and paid search results. If a media company wants its content at the top of the results, then they can pay Google to do just that.
The internet is nearly impossible to regulate. Google is the only entity with the influence to regulate the web and it has little interest in helping other media companies. Also, Google enforces its policy on “sponsored conversations” from marketers and brands, why should it give media companies a free pass to the top? They are brands as well.
The current system rewards those who play the game best. Old media needs to learn new media if it wants to compete for top billing. They could use some advice from an Internet Marketing Company.
The internet is a medium of equality. Although it is filled with pointless, asinine content from the multitudes who believe others care about their opinions, the internet offers a platform where everyone (and I mean everyone) has equal reach with their content.
All in all:
The internet offers everyone the freedom to express their opinions. A company needs to learn how to work within the current system for success.