morestar
02-01-2011, 07:03 PM
Of all the leaps and bounds Google has made in their search engine, I'm a little skeptical that they'll be able to determine which content is of content farms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_farm) and which aren't.
Last week we heard news that Google will be enhancing their algorithm to fight content farms (http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-algorithm-to-fight-content-spam-62736). Today we heard that the content farm algorithm isn't live yet (http://searchengineland.com/googles-content-farm-algorithm-not-live-yet-63207) but whether the algorithm has kicked in or not, do you really believe Google will be able to determine content is from content farms based solely on the content?
From my perspective there is too much to risk. How can Google determine if the content has come from a reliable source; a specialist in the field vs. a regular person who's not a specialist in the field.
From the WIki on Content Farms:
The articles in content farms are written by human beings but may not be written by a specialist in the area. Proponents of the content farms claim that from a business perspective, traditional journalism is inefficient: stories are chosen by a small group of people that frequently have similar experiences and outlooks. Content farms often commission their writers' work based on analysis of search engine queries that proponents represent as "true market demand", a feature that traditional journalism lacks.
I believe traditional journalism and true market demand writing should go hand in hand but we know how the journalists feel about the impact of SEO (http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/103876-Impact-of-SEO-on-Journalists?p=531242&viewfull=1#post531242) on their work.
As the Devil's advocate, I could say that content farm content written by people who can conjure up, create or have real life experiences related to the subject write the best articles and journalism should be kept for the journalists.
So with that I just want your views. Personally and for the record at the moment, unless Google has developed or got their hands on a piece of high end software, I don't believe they can tell if content is farmed or not.
And if they can't why say they can and will do something about it?
Last week we heard news that Google will be enhancing their algorithm to fight content farms (http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-algorithm-to-fight-content-spam-62736). Today we heard that the content farm algorithm isn't live yet (http://searchengineland.com/googles-content-farm-algorithm-not-live-yet-63207) but whether the algorithm has kicked in or not, do you really believe Google will be able to determine content is from content farms based solely on the content?
From my perspective there is too much to risk. How can Google determine if the content has come from a reliable source; a specialist in the field vs. a regular person who's not a specialist in the field.
From the WIki on Content Farms:
The articles in content farms are written by human beings but may not be written by a specialist in the area. Proponents of the content farms claim that from a business perspective, traditional journalism is inefficient: stories are chosen by a small group of people that frequently have similar experiences and outlooks. Content farms often commission their writers' work based on analysis of search engine queries that proponents represent as "true market demand", a feature that traditional journalism lacks.
I believe traditional journalism and true market demand writing should go hand in hand but we know how the journalists feel about the impact of SEO (http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/103876-Impact-of-SEO-on-Journalists?p=531242&viewfull=1#post531242) on their work.
As the Devil's advocate, I could say that content farm content written by people who can conjure up, create or have real life experiences related to the subject write the best articles and journalism should be kept for the journalists.
So with that I just want your views. Personally and for the record at the moment, unless Google has developed or got their hands on a piece of high end software, I don't believe they can tell if content is farmed or not.
And if they can't why say they can and will do something about it?