Now that I have gotten off the beaten path and talked about what would have made the article better and called it nothing but fluff for the Digg Good ‘ol Boy Network let me tell you what I see in the future of Google.

First, I see a huge antitrust lawsuit looming in their future.  If it doesn’t come from the US, it will come from the EU.  Google has simply gotten to big and aggressive for anyone to like them.  They are the biggest search engine in the world and that is a good thing in many respects, but it has its downsides too.  being the biggest means they control the results.  While they claim you can’t buy the number one ranking for any given search (the one ninety percent of people click on) I have to disagree.  You can most certainly buy it for the right price when you use Google adwords and other rumored Google marketing products that are coming in the future.  The problem is they tend to penalize people who buy the same sort of products from anyone else effectively removing from first page search results contention.  They have effectively said use our products and only our products or we may very well hurt your business.  For regulators who might see this, that sort of behavior sounds an awful lot like good old Mafioso extortion.

The second place I see their downfall is with Adsense itself.  As the biggest search engine serving up billions of searches each and every day more often than not the first page is started off with links to their own pages with Adsense advertising.   This not only cuts into the pockets of individual publishers using Adsense, but it also smacks publishers with just as relevant of content who don’t use Adsense where it hurts most.  At the very least this is a conflict of interests that reeks of potential abuse.  At worst this is a direct manipulation of the market in ways that are illegal in most countries.

Moving down the list of potentially fatal programs is their highly secretive PageRank Algorithm.  The refuse to disclose the methods that they use to calculate PageRank, and change it often.  While there is no doubt that PageRank and thus search results based on that PR would be manipulated or content would be written specifically to meet any stated PageRank guidelines, the fact that the biggest search engine sells advertising and claims to have the best system of saying how good a publishers content brings them back into a huge conflict of interest. Not only are publishers and companies wishing to advertise with those publishers put at odds with The Google Money Machine, but the end user making searches may find themselves done a disservice.

In the end Google will be forced to change if they want to stay in business.  It isn’t going to happen today, and most likely won’t even begin to happen this year.  Mark my words though it will eventually happen and when it does the little empire that they have built will fail.

Respond here to claim a movie, register for an account, and write your review. The first ten people to hand in their review will have them posted and open for a vote of the people. Claim your spot now!

Do you know so much about your favorite area of pop culture that you should be thought of as a pop culture icon in your own right? Here is the chance to prove it by becoming The Other Blog’s resident expert. I am looking for articulate people with a passion for something. It doesn’t mater if you run a blog or not, all you need to be is passionate about your subject.

The main subjects I am looking for right now are movie reviewers, Reality TV fans, Indie Music, Sci-Fi Fandoms (Trek, Wars, BSG, Stargate, etc), Sci-fi and fantasy readers with book reviews and suggested reading idea, and last but not least what is pop culture without celebrity gossip.

I am also looking for at least one gay and one lesbian who would like to make contributions about gays and lesbians in pop culture, past and present. This could be for a team post or as individuals.

I will consider bloggers from any area of pop culture, but I will need to consider the number of posts you can contribute in a certain area before adding them.

Compensation (for now):

• 1 Post gets you added to the Contributors Page and appropriate links to your blog or website.
• 5 posts gets you added to the Writing Team as well.
• 10 Posts will get you a full bio page with social network links and some of your own advertising. (I have some good affiliate programs if you are lacking)
• 1 post a week after 10 will get your adsense or other marketing links inserted into your posts.

That is all I can offer now besides the increase in traffic to both of our sites, but in the future I want to have a revenue sharing program for regular contributors.

]]> http://bradstinyworld.com/open-call-for-guest-bloggers/feed/ 2 http://bradstinyworld.com/offended/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=offended http://bradstinyworld.com/offended/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:17:00 +0000 BradHart http://bradstinyworld.com/?p=186 Continue reading →]]> When the hell did the right to not be offended come into play?  Who gave you that right?  I am simply sick to death of hearing from people who say I am offended by me and shouldn’t have to put up with my commentary .  Well screw you and I hope you are offended by the phrase “screw you”.  You have no such right to not be offended.  If I don’t have the right to say say “screw you” then you lack the right to babble on about your superstitious ways.  Oh you are offended by me calling your religion a superstition, then screw you doubly this time.

In a free society, something we claim to be, no such right to not be offended can ever exist.  if you don’t like what I have to say then post a damned reply and defend your belief, rather than hiding behind a veil of secrecy in the contact form.  If you don’t want my thoughts to offend you then click on that little adsense banner over there to be taken away to some PC business friendly site that offends no one.  Of course it also tells you nothing of the world you live in except a product exists and you should buy it.

In the end if you don’t want to be offended by someone else’s beliefs then the answer is not to chastise them for having it, but rather to work on strengthening your own by defending it with honest debate rather than whining about how little faith and conviction you have.

Video of In The Night Directed by Anthony Seck

Our second album of the week is Bob Mould’s District Line. The former Hüsker Dü guitarist has given us another great collection of songs. From the electric guitars of Stupid Now which takes me back to my younger years listening to Hüsker Dü. The acoustic guitar work in Again and Again gives a great feel to the break up the song is about. My personal favorite off the album is Return to Dust with its electronic beginning taken over by hard guitars and steady percussion.

If you have a favorite new indie band or you are in up and coming band with an original sound please feel free to contact me about at review at brad at theotherblog.net.