Yesterday at WordCamp Matt Mullenweg asked Matt Cutts about Text Link Ads on blogs. I have Text Link Ads and have done for some time. I never thought that they wanted me to link because my content matched theirs – to think that is stupid. It’s Page Rank all the way and to be honest I didn’t care (still don’t) because they are paying me to occupy that small space. But because these people pay me money and those people have PR in mind Google doesn’t like it. Google’s ball park, Google’s rules and the rules are going to apparently hit sites who have these links.

So Google knock me down to a 6 or a 5. The link buyers don’t want me and go – I lose money. I decide to not renew ads to keep my PR and I lose money. It’s not a huge deal as it was never counted into any budget but I lose either way. Google does not want me to get money to promote something that would not get that exposure without the money being behind it.

So a site that does figure in their results is not allowed to try and get higher by paying a blogger for advertising space. But what about a site that does not figure at all in their results paying someone else to get not just some exposure but the most visible exposure?
Their game, their rules.

Right now it’s really easy to see the TLA but would they know if I slotted them into my blogroll? Yes, of course they would. Google has the technology to come to my site and figure out that my link to Podrunner is a genuine link but the one to some directory is not. It could penalise that directory in some way that allowed the blogger to make cash but which did not harm the PR. It has that power. But it does not want to share that pie. It wants it all and it will take it. Their games, their rules.
It’s telling of course that the very people who work for TLA will not have their sites using their own product but that is not the issue. The issue is that Google are saying that they want the ad cash and bloggers shall not be allowed it.

Do I care about PR? Yes because the cash is nice because I’m a 7. No because when I search for it I have to wade through a heap of junk to find the results I do want. And it’s not sponsored links that are causing the junk (what is does not matter right now) so if sponsored links are not impeding my experience of using Google then why hit me with that stick just because it’s an incredibly easy stick to use? How many bloggers actually use TLA? Is blogging really hurting Google (because by definition PR is Google) to the point that they do this? Is blogging – or rather a few links on well-structured sites – so powerful that Google cannot do anything else? Are they backed into a corner? No – they just cannot be bothered / don’t care / want to be greedy.

Better people than me will have dissected and argued this and this post is not going to change a damn thing but I’ve always hated hypocrisy despite Matt Cutts being a nice guy and a very entertaining speaker what came out of those last few minutes of presentation seems wrong.

(The two ‘sponsored links’ above I cannot find in a Google search with 100 results for ‘text link ads’ if I block ads.)