Thursday, December 06, 2007 Toral: The Internet Gets Political By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
THERE are so many interesting things that happened in 2007. For one, the Internet got very political and here are some that caught my attention.
Search engine politics. Last October, there was an intensive debate on how search engine giant Google.com has behaved against websites that are buying links and those that are accepting payments for links that passes on one’s Google PageRank.
There was a concept before that if a higher ranking site links to a low-rank or new site, it passes on something like a “link integrity”. This may directly or indirectly have an impact on the new site’s search engine results ranking, depending on the keywords used, and may result in PageRank increase too.
Buying and accepting payments for links can result in manipulation of search engine results and the Google PageRank algorithm. Because of this, Google has taken action against this practice and encourages the Internet community to submit a report of websites doing this.
From a consumer perspective, there is nothing wrong with this as getting authentic search engine query results is of primary interest by anyone looking for information online.
It got tricky and political when the search engine giant is also known for selling advertisement spots, through Google AdWords, and showing advertisements when search engine query results get published. It also has Google AdSense where these advertisements can appear in third-party websites like the Sun.Star Online and blogs. Those that are into the buying and selling of links see this as a way of the search engine giant in eliminating grassroot competition. This issue is very far from over and will not be surprised if it will turn into a full blown international and perhaps anti-trust case. With social networks becoming pervasive more than ever, it is much easier now to bring people together to take a united action.
Blog and Twitter Politics. With the popularity of blogs and Twitter. com as a communication and information dissemination tool, it is inevitable that there will be clashes of opinions and practices on a lot of issues.
Including me, there were several Filipino bloggers who got involved in a lot of blog politics online that ranged from project bastardization, blog marketing practices, misrepresentation accusation, child abuse, petition against the removal of a newspaper columnist, among others. There were a lot of hurtful things said that have resulted in groupings but I guess that is all part of growth and maturity of the medium used.
The discussion crosses as well at Twitter.com, which has become the new source of breaking news - that comes from its users. Take the case of the earthquake that hit the country and Sen. Trillianes’ walkout issue last week.
My first source of information was not the online newspapers breaking news section but the people I followed in Twitter.com.
