I’ve been researching and writing about the impact of content farms – organizations like Demand Media, AOL Seed and Suite 101 – on the journalism industry and on SEO (search engine optimization).
Did you know that when you conduct a search online many of the results you’ll see on the first few pages actually take you to content generated through these “farms”? Whether that’s a good or a bad thing remains to be seen and is really based on the perspectives of the searchers themselves.
If they find what they’re looking for, they’re happy. But, as someone who uses search a lot, and as a business owner who would like my website content, and the website content of my clients, to have a fighting chance against these SEO masters who are literally flooding cyberspace with their content, I’m finding it somewhat frustrating.
And, apparently, I’m not alone. One of the editors I work with recently forwarded me an interesting article about a new search engine – Duck Duck Go – that is going head-to-head with Google by offering search results that weed out the generic content generated by content farms. Not a battle for the weak of heart, certainly. But a worthy objective, nonetheless. I, for one, plan to check them out and will be interested to watch how the broader world of search may be impacted.
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