Looks like Google’s laying some more smack down and causing a certain amount of panic among paid bloggers. In the forums of one site some bloggers are advising that we should all strip our links to other bloggers, reinstate no-follow, and pretend we don’t know anything at all about getting paid to blog. Other bloggers are suggesting all out boycotts of Google to get it across to them that THEY DON’T OWN US!

Word.

I’m not in the camp of laying down at the feet of Google and doing all they ask. I can see how some bloggers feel that they should conform, though. Still, it’s a little much to ask, isn’t it? Blogging India suggests:

Try and utilize the time to try and firefight. Remove the links, or bargain with the advertisers to have No-Follow tags inserted. STOP all viral blog chains, like Technorati Faves and stuff. Put your efforts into blogging quality content. And have patience. Google can’t do this for ever.

I’ve only just started seeing these Technorati Faves campaigns, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t work. Technorati brings more traffic to any of my blogs than Google. That tells me that more readers frequent Technorati for content. This is wrong? Google probably doesn’t like it and that’s fine. But I’m not going to stop living my life to benefit Google. I do agree that quality content is important and have been questioning my decision to begin doing paid blogging. Still, I have some short-term goals and I need money to meet those goals. What to do? I’m certainly not going to stop linking. That just goes against everything blogging was born to be. Shoot, that goes against everything the WEB is about! We see a site that interests us, we link. We don’t put a "no-follow" in the link because we want the support the sites we like. That makes no sense to me. I like Beth’s (AFrogToKiss.net) idea a little better. She says:

Do as I did-stop using anything Google. Un-install Google Earth, Google Desktop, don’t use Google Reader, DO NOT for any reason use Google as your search engine. Do not use Adsense- we all know very few make money from it anyway, except for those who kiss Google’s ass and, well, Google. If you visit a blog or website using Adsense and you see a product you’re interested in- DO NOT CLICK THE LINK. Not only is the owner of the site making money, but Google as well. Back away, go to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN, and do a search. Most of the “deals” on Adsense aren’t really deals and I can guarantee if it’s something you buy, you can find it cheaper someplace else.

Stop kissing Google’s ass. Don’t give Google the power. Google is feeling a pinch in it’s pocketbook from all the link adverts. And it’s completely understandable that they want to protect that bottom line, which means sucking juice away from sites that aren’t giving them the money. They’re a business and they need to profit. But they don’t need to control the Web and force website owners/bloggers to lay down and take it for them. They shouldn’t have that power. So, that means quit writing for Google! Don’t worry about Google. Another search engine is going to see a profit potential from what Google is doing and come in to reap the rewards. There’s big money to be made here and the people shelling out the money know this. They’re not going to let Google stop them. Why should we? I can’t stop using my GMail, though. I’m sorry, Beth. It’s way better than Yahoo! and MSN, so I’m stuck with that. I have already stopped using Google search and have never used BlogSearch (Technorati still rocks my socks for blogsearching). I don’t want to give my personal power to Google, but I don’t want to see them go completely away. Just, maybe, go down a couple of pegs. Because they don’t own the Web- we do.

Update:

Funny thing I just noticed. My political site is up from a PR 0 to a PR 3 since yesterday. That’s funny to me because until recently PR never mattered to me and the traffic I get there is minimal. It’s a deeply political blog that would never pass muster with some people, but I guess Google’s kind of fond of it.

Interesting, huh?