Web 2.0 May Save the Internet
I've personally come to dislike the term "Web 2.0". It gets used so much, by so many different people, in so many different ways, that it's become pretty much meaningless at this point. My thinking on the subject is pretty much in line with Richard McManus', that although I don't like it, the term's attained such a critical mass at this point that it's not going away any time soon (until people start using "Web 3.0", I assume)
Regardless of how anyone feels about the term itself, the act of bringing people together in a social network to distribute information efficiently is something truly great. And that aspect of Web 2.0 may be the saving grace of the Internet based on what's been happening lately with search engines.
One of the most popular Digg posts today (it made the front page) was an interesting article called "Crazy AdSense Experiment: Unethical But Legal $10,000/Month". These guys show, step by step how to set up a page that is designed to do nothing but suck up AdSense revenue by creating a Frankenstein search results page. These are called "Made for AdSense" (MFA) sites, and they're basically just a copy of "real" results, padded with lots of AdSense ads. The point of the MFA site is to get people to click on the AdSense ads on the MFA site instead of clicking on it directly on the Google search results. Essentially, it creates another layer of advertising between Google and the people who are really paying for ads. And what's even worse is that the second AdSense ad you click on might be an MFA site as well.
What's funny is that Google makes money either way. Although the MFA sites are diluting search results and making Google less useful in general, Google probably makes more money with these sites than without them. They probably already have a safegaurd in place to filter these sites out, but turning it on would cause their profits to decline which is, I assume, why they haven't done so yet.
Scams like these are proliferating every day. Getting on the front page of Digg is going to speed this along. In fact, making these MFA sites proliferate so that Google is forced to turn them off is the intent of the article, which I have mixed feelings about. Obviously it's going to get worse before it gets better. Unless Google decides to bite the bullet and filter these sites out, taking a revenue hit, AdSense is going to become virtually useless.
I think there's going to be a point in the near future when finding content via social networking engines is going to become much more efficient and useful method of finding information than search engines. In fact, for all the garbage posted to Digg, doing a search on Digg often yields interesting and relevant results, and you also get to see how many other people thought the content was useful as well, before even opening the item. This kind of functionality isn't something Google even attempts to do.
This also becomes apparent when you look at the Search Engine Optimization community and realize that Google is constantly tweaking their algorithm to make it LESS sensitive and LESS responsive in an attempt to filter out MFA-type sites. A recent post from Andy Hagans is a perfect example--people concerned with site traffic are starting to be wary of changing their sites to much for fear of going back in Google's "sandbox", the probationary area for new sites where they live until Google can be sure that they'll be around for a while.
As the semantic Web becomes a reality and the wiring for next-generation social networks is built, it'll be interesting to see where people go for content. Google is the de facto standard starting point as of right now, but that's only because they have provided the most relevant information.
The turning point will come when people find a better way to find information than punching it into Google. What do you usually do when somebody is looking for information? I usually ask them if they've asked Google yet. If they say no, I tell them to go do it. Recently, however, I've noticed that my answer changes based on what they're looking for. If they're looking for information on how to do something, for example, I tell them to go visit WikiHow. A social network. If they're looking for tech news I tell them to go look at Digg and Tech.Meme. Social networks.
It'll be interesting to see if Google acts or reacts to the declining relevance of "their" content.
