This has to be the dumbest “solution” I’ve ever heard.
Google has announced a new hyperlink attribute called : rel=”nofollow”
Example:
- Visit my <a href=”http://www.example.com/” rel="nofollow">discount pharmaceuticals</a> site.
It tells the search spider to NOT follow the link the tag is on. The intended benefit is to stop comment spam from being as effective at getting PageRank through links in comment sections. The real benefit (consequence?) will be a slick way for webmasters to abuse the tag and control the PageRank of their pages. We really need one more thing directed at PageRank and not page content.
Do they really think this tag will be used only in the fight against comment spam? Heck, you can go through your page and put this tag on all external links, or even just select ones that you care not to credit, and YOUR internal site PageRank will go up (with absolutely no loss in functionality). Blogging about some crazy leftwing comment you just found that you want to share? Make sure to add the nofollow tag to the link so you don’t help them.
And we definently wouldn’t want legitimate commentors to get their link ranked now would we?
I must be overreacting to this or missing some angle of it (please correct me if I’m wrong on something) because the idea seems to be being accepted by EVERYONE right off the bat. I hope Google reconsiders or at least puts a delay on it because it’ll be hard to undo once they get the ball rolling.
SPAMMERS 1, GOOGLE 0
If this doesn’t work, I bet if we shut down all the blog sites they won’t be able to spam us then either. I guess that is plan B.
Update:
Technorati will also recognize the tag.
Yahoo! and MSN too.
Others that don’t see this as the answer:
Teal Sunglasses via (Brad Delong)
Aimless Words
Sunir
SearchBlog - (Neutral)
Eric Anderson at 1:52 am
You’re right, Google & yahoo & msn’s and … is a truly stupid idea.
Better solution: kick bloggers out of google! That would fairly solve ALL of your issues, AND MINE!
Comment by jerry — January 19, 2005 @ 9:10 am
Now people can link to websites which they don’t like, without google making its usual assumption, that linking is positive. If a webmaster goes to the trouble of providing this information to google, that’s a good thing. Surely this not abuse, but just an alternative use. It’s not the reason google invented the rel=nofollow facility, but it is a bonus.
Also where you say “YOUR internal site PageRank will go up”. Why? The rel=nollow attribute has no effect upon the pagerank of the page containing the link.
Dont get me wrong. I’m no google worshipper. I think rel=nofollow is overhyped and is actually a fairly weak solution. It’s not going to stop comment spam any time soon, but I don’t think it is *bad* thing.
Comment by Harry Wood — March 5, 2005 @ 5:07 pm
Pagerank is distriubted equally to all links coming off of each page. If you mark all external links with the nofollow tag all of your PageRank will remain internal. This would boost your internal Pagerank.
Comment by Eric Anderson — March 6, 2005 @ 9:27 pm