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Article from Issue 243/2021
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The big search engines have way too much power over the business world. It almost doesn't matter what your business is. Almost every industry has some kind of online presence – either to sell directly or to provide information to users in need of addresses and product details.

Dear Reader,

The big search engines have way too much power over the business world. It almost doesn't matter what your business is. Almost every industry has some kind of online presence – either to sell directly or to provide information to users in need of addresses and product details. If you need acupuncture services, for instance, you will likely type in "acupuncture" with the name of your city to find the services in your area. When the results pop up, the top three names on the list will get most of the clicks, and the first on the list will get the most of all. Getting to the top (or near the top) of that search list is therefore vitally important for any company.

This need to ascend the search ladder has resulted in a system of "search engine optimization" practices that range from the arcane to the comical. We get letters every day from expert "bloggers" offering to post free content on our site if we will link back to their sites. Although they don't mention it, the purpose of this game is to juice up their search rank. Some of these "experts" are actually part of the Open Source community, which might make some sense (if we did that kind of thing), but a few are pretty far afield. One guy said he read all the content on our website, and he knew we would just love his article on interpreting dreams. (Uhhh, we do Linux dude?)

[...]

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