Google needs to come clean

In recent news, Google executives in Italy have been convicted for participating in the dissemination of a video depicting the abuse of a child with Down's Syndrome.

Google responded, claiming this action represents the end of the internet as we know it.

Well, it could certainly mean the end of Google as we know it. The problem as I see it is, while Google execs didnt post the video or even know about it until after it was removed, what they fail to mention is they did automatically make money from the posting of the video, as they do with all videos. Ads placed next to videos automatically bill to the advertisers and the videos, regardless of content, immediately generate revenue for Google.

So, they financially benefitted from the abuse of a Downs Syndrome child. The amount may be vanishingly small given the number of hits, but it does bring up a serious point that, were I working at Google, would avoid making such a big stink in the news about.

The point this brings up is, Google financially benefits from all videos posted on youtube and google video in the form of traffic and ad revenue. This truly makes them fiscally responsible for the content contained therein. I'm not sure how they avoid this, but it does seem like a gaping loophole that may be exploited by these Italian lawyers.

Right now, if I try to apply for "revenue sharing" with Google, I get refused if I cannot provide significant legal documentation stating I own the rights in eternal perpetuity across all media for every molecule, concept, and brand displayed in my videos, as well as permission of all those depicted. Otherwise, I fail to be considered. They dont take the video down though, they leave it up and continue to profit from it even though they CLEARLY do not own permission if I the poster do not (by their unreasonably strict standards)

So, my advice to Google is, if you cant accept the responsibility for something, DONT accept the benefit. Actively avoid it. Do not place ads on or near any content for which you are unwilling to be held accountable for, and ONLY pay revenue to the poster and get them to share with you ONLY if they can prove 100% ownership of the content. That way, the responsibility is indeed 100% with the poster, and you are free of culpability.

In this case, I'm afraid, you are partially culpable, although were I the judge I would charge a small fine of $2000 or so payable to the family and you could be on your way, with a warning to change your business model.

Why Facebook Looks Like Twitter...

Here is a snapshot of the traffic on these websites, ranked where "1" is the most visted website on the 'net, and 10000 is the 10000th most visited website. As you can see...Facebook is plateauing with a gentle increase in the past year, Yahoo has seen a recent sharp drop, twitter.com and ning.com are experiencing significant increases, with Twitter being the most pronounced most recently, and second life has a steady decline.
Now its interesting that roughly when Twitter sees the spike in their useage is close to just before we saw facebook change its pages and profiles to look almost exactly like twitter's.

My purpose in grouping these particular websites is to draw a comparison between sites that are "open" and let you put content from them on other websites, and others that are "closed" AKA "walled gardens" that will let you post content to them from other sites, but they wont let you pull content from them to other sites.

Yes, the sites in decline or plateauing fit the walled garden category, with Second Life being the most severe walled garden largely due to the bulky client "viewer".

Conversely the sites with the sharpest increases in traffic allow you to easily put content YOU create on their sites on whatever other sites you want. Twitter makes this perhaps easier than any of them.

Again, this is all predicted in "What would Google Do" by Jeff Jarvis, and its interesting to see which companies here need to smarten up, and which ones are the future leaders, so lets just hope for their sake when they do get to the top...they dont forget how they got there, like Mr. Zuckerberg apparently has begun to do.

Run your own analysis for free at Alexa and see how your favorite sites stack up! Just replace the sites in the text boxes with whatever you want for .com and play with the date ranges. Its a very handy, free tool that makes Alexa another big winner in the traffic world. If only the big CEO's would realize, the most honest, open companies will always win in a world where "Free is a business model".

In facebook, it would be great if you could RSS the updates feed, and all the feeds, for that matter, and get the content out from inside the "blue and white utopia" of facebook if we wanted to. Its our content after all right?