Over the past 10 days I’ve been following news snippets of the latest tech company to suffer the wrath of Google.
Rap Genius. Heard of’em?
I love’em. I check’em often, when trying to get a few layers deeper into my “new favorite song” of the moment. It’s a lyric site that takes it a step further and allows users to annotate songs with definitions, notes, and back-end stories in order to properly contextualize the song and artist’s state of mind. These guys have a great product and concept perfectly positioned to scale into other literary works- imagine being able to reference a source like this writing that paper on E. A. Poe. For now though, to get lyrics users are conditioned to simply Google the title- hey fuck it; it works.
An SEO Business
Relative newcomers on the scene (2009), working on building a brand and name recognition, RapGenuis’ bread and butter traffic comes from search engines- aka Google. This statement was never more true than on December 25 2013 when they essentially got wiped out from Google search results. Turns out that, among other minor transgressions, for a short while they engaged in a link exchange deal with bloggers where RapGenius (RG) would in turn promote them on RG social media channels. Turns out these practices undermine the integrity of a search engine and are a big no-no in Google land.
Damage Control
Props where props is due though. RapGenuis team buckled down immediately and hashed through a plan, which included eliminating all unsaint links, that got them back in Google’s good grace within 7-days. Excellent breakdown and details available here on RapGenuis Blog.
Google = Internet
If I had to explain to someone who’d woken up from a 20 year coma what the internet was, I’d hand them a laptop open a Google window and tell’em “Type anything that comes to mind in that little box there. That’s the internet.”
Granted- I exaggerate – it’s much more but right now, today,Google is The Gatekeeper.
It never get old to hear the complaints and uproar when Google makes an algorithm change (nowadays Facebook is playing that same game too). Although easier said than done in an ever more centralized space Fred Wilson said it best.
– “Don’t be a Google Bitch, don’t be a Facebook Bitch, and Don’t be a Twitter Bitch. Be your own Bitch.”