Google To Offer Paid Reviews?

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Those of us spanked by Google during the great PR slash of October 2007 found ourselves wondering why the big G targeted small “Mom and Pop” bloggers, rather than taking on the paid review companies more directly.

It turns out there may be a reason: there’s talk that Google may soon be offering paid reviews via AdSense, although as Jeremy Shoemaker points out it’s all speculation so far.

Between their huge advertiser client base and leverage with publishers, Shoe believes there are sound financial reasons for Google’s entry into the field. He also points out that such a move would be an excellent way for the company to police the paid review industry which it sought to destroy on the basis of passing PR juice.

I’m not so sure.

While Google has lambasted the paid review industry specifically for passing page rank via paid links, there’s also been a quality control aspect to their stance, too. Take, for example, Matt Cutts’ specific highlighting of poorly written paid reviews that muddy search results by not using the “nofollow” tag.

Google’s very size would make it particularly difficult for them to monitor reviews on the post-by-post basis as LinkWorth, PPP and SponsoredReviews all do.

As a result, any paid review program run by Google would most likely require advertisers themselves to handle the approval/rejection process. And, because Google couldn’t carve out an exception to its mandatory use of the “nofollow” tag without encountering legal problems (can you say, “monopoly”?), they’d essentially be reducing their function to acting as a mere middle man between advertisers and paid reviewers.

Meanwhile, since advertisers wouldn’t be buying PR juice, the only real benefit Google could offer to advertisers is review placement on high-traffic sites likely to reach their desired target markets. That’s already happening. Advertisers already contact reviewers directly to engage in private transactions, and those bloggers interested in protecting their PR are already insisting on use of the “nofollow” tag in such privately-contracted reviews.

So why would anyone bother?

Google’s made a fortune by making smart business moves, time and time again. Entering into the paid review industry wouldn’t be one. So don’t sprain your fingers keeping them crossed over this, folks.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Writing reviews. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Tagged in: adsense | google | paid reviews

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