Internet War - Quest to Know VS Quest to be Seen

The recent 'Panda' update and the growing influence of social network sites has polarized the Battle for Cyber Space and World War III - The Great Internet War being raged on WWW. The battle is between the Quest to Know and the Quest to be Seen (Quality Knowledge versus Advertising Revenue).

In a sense most of the major battles have already been won by the great Brand Name Companies who have bought their places and pay to keep on top. Google is pulling the strings and controls the great armoury of weapons and Adsense advertising.

Google controls and manipulates both sides.

Google's algorithms control what the searcher finds in the Quest to Know. Google's Adsense System and targeted display of advertising, controls the other side - the Quest to be Seen and Advertise. Google pulls the strings on what sites are displayed that contain ads.

In a sense niche marketing strategies are the Guerilla war side of the great battle. The niche marketers are like hunters and gathers spending their days trying to find the last remaining niche bricks in a wall that is already standing, solid and virtually completely filled. They look for gaps, they look for minor opportunities to replace bricks that are already there, but are loose and vulnerable with low PR. The key is to put the keyword phrase in the domain and title and in the first few paragraphs of the article.

But Google also controls the strings to this guerilla warfare as well. This was clearly shown by the great 'Panda' Squat which squashed the efforts of many niche marketers. It shifted the ratings of the great article site repositories and how well they competed in their niche battles. Some won and many lost (including Hubpages)!

A new front and a new set of combatants have joined the Internet Battle in the form of Social Networking sites which have added another dimension to search and the Quest to Know and the Quest to See, and be Seen.

Multiple Dilemmas

Google faces a great dilemma and responsibility as most of the world uses its search engine to search for information.

Its reputation and its future as the premier search tool is reliant on how its users rate the quality of the knowledge Google provides in their Quest to Know, to get the information they want.

Google makes its billions from Adsense advertising, so it is a major player in the Quest to be Seen.

Google's advertisers want to be seen as often as possible and compete for the keywords. Google satisfies what they want. But interestingly Google doesn't protect and restrict trademarks and brand names to their registered owners in adsense marketing.

Google targets ads for specific users based on their location and prior search behaviours to try to maximize the number of time the user clicks on the ads. The same applies for pay-for- impression ads. Google pulls the strings on what ads are seen.

Niche Marketers - Another Brick in the Wall - Finding Gaps and Weaknesses

Website Builders face the dilemma of deciding whether they will build a website that provides information to users and help build the array of knowledge for the Quest to Know. Their keywords, URL and Title will be strongly targeted at the knowledge, information or product/service they are targeting.

However there is not much point building a great website that no one will ever see. So they have to target their website to a niche ('a gap in the great brickwall of the internet' - see below).

This changes the scope and kind of information they provide. Many website builders aim primarily at the Quest to be Seen. They want to sell something and advertise their product or service on the internet.

© janderson99-HubPages

Article Writers face the dilemma of deciding whether they will write quality articles about topics that they know about, care about, or have thoroughly researched because they are genuinely interested in the subject.

Or whether they will write niche articles on demand.

Virtually everyone who writes wants an audience - people who will read what they have written. Often this audience is provided by the community of writers and readers on the site that hosts the articles (such as Hubpages).

But if they use a great title and keywords that is strongly related to their topic - chances are that someone else will have written about the same topic and no one will read it.

Chances are no one will read about it via a Google search because it will be on Page 10 of the search results

If you can't find a niche topic and set of keywords for that 'vulnerable gap in the brickwall' no one will find it or read it.

If you can't find an obscure topic or sub-topic that has not been written about before - no one will read it.

Some people write articles purely to make money, others want some return for the efforts but stick to topics they know about and want to know about. The dilemma remains - What to write about?

The formula writers are like machines. They have software to find hot niche topics. They carefully find a set of target keyword for the article about the topic that wil fill a vulnerable gap in the brick wall. Then they simply copy, or get some text by Googling it, or download a PLR article, or get text from somewhere else, and rewrite it so it won't be picked up as a duplicate. There are software tools that will rewrite if for you, so as not to be a duplicate.

In many ways such articles may be purely landing pages to display ads and make money. Much to do about nothing! This is what triggered the Panda Update.

It may be better that the information is limited on these pages because this will increase the likelihood that the user will click on the ads. Pay-for-Impression ads encourage this approach. The writer gets their 'cents' as soon as the user opens the page!

Writers face the dilemma 'Write Trash for Cash' or 'Write Quality for the Love of It' and because they believe that what they write will help and inform someone. They love researchng the topic and want to share their findings and analysis on the internet.

There is a middle ground but is tough! It means finding a sub-niche area for a topic that has been already written about, that has low competion for the sub-niche. A little island of opportunity in a sea of 'Its all been done before' branded with high PR.

The people searching the internet face the dilemma of finding what they want to know quickly and reliably, for many different purposes and objectives. They don't know what is reliable, what has good quality, and has authority and can be trusted, and what is simply junk. They don't know how to tell the difference, and how to narrow their search to get exactly what they need.

Searching through mixed quality stuff in search results takes time and effort. How do they do it reliably? There are some alternative search sites that give better results especially for niche areas. In some ways the 'Mash' engines work best.

How does the user and Google tell the good stuff from the junk? Google has used a group of humans to confirm that there algorithms are working to satisfy the user, but the junk still gets through. In a sense the 'adsense ads' have encouraged the Quest to be Seen and the huge proliferation of low quality websites and articles on the internet.

The great irony in all of this is that Google pulls the strings to manipulate both sides of the battle. Its their fault that the garbage sites have proliferated and that they continually have to find the 'magic quality filters' for their algorithms that will provide a satisfactory user experience when viewing the search results.

The battle for control of the Social Networks is another story.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

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© janderson99-HubPages