[Gllug] [OT?] Please sign my Google petition ...

[Ian Norton]

On Mon, Jun 07, 2004 at 09:18:37PM +0100, Mike Brodbelt wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-06-07 at 14:06, Richard Jones wrote:
> > ... if you believe in it, of course.
> > 
> > http://www.PetitionOnline.com/googhtml/petition.html
> 
> While I agree entirely with the idea of promoting open standards, and by
> extension W3C compliant websites, I can't help but think what you're
> advocating is a terrible idea. The Google search engine exists to
> provide a service to its users, and that service is that of being able
> to locate information. While I might wish all websites followed W3C
> standards, reality is that many do not. This however, does not lessen
> the value of the information they contain to someone who is searching
> for it.
> 
> Google already promotes many good things, and while I don't always agree
> 100% with everything they do, I do feel that they try to "do the right
> thing" most of the time. If what you're advocating came to pass, I think
> that rather than persuade websites to move toward W3C compliance, you
> would instead persuade search engine users to move away from Google.
> Weakening Google in this area would only strengthen Microsoft. 
> 
> When you command 75%+ of a market, and your users are victims of your
> lock-in tactics, you can afford to sacrifice compatibility to move in a
> direction you choose, assured that users will have little choice but to
> follow (though they will come to resent you for it). When your users are
> not locked in to your product, and the nature of that product means that
> switching is as effortlessly simple as changing a bookmark, you don't
> have the luxury of alienating them by prioritising something that
> frankly, most of them don't care about.
> 
> I agree with what you're trying to achieve, but asking Google to
> undermine their search for it is madness. Push for equal accessibility
> on websites, educate users about alternative browsers, educate
> webmasters about accessibility requirements, and maybe persude google to
> include a "W3C" approved logo on search results that do validate, on the
> grounds that webmasters who care may produce better sites. Asking them
> to slant their search results to fit your agenda is however, just as bad
> as Microsoft slanting the MSN search results to fit their corporate
> agenda, and I think few of us would have any hesitation in decrying that
> sort of behaviour.
> 
> My 2p worth,
> 
> Mike.
> 
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I would recon that if google really were to adopt something that encourages
standards it would be applied to give pages that have the same rank but good
standards support a higher position than those that do not, for accessibility
sake this also gives more people better sources of data

Ian 

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