Google has a problem. PageRank can be gamed, as Matt Mullenweg has shown. That’s right Google shareholders, your product is flawed.
I can envision some righteous big wigs down in Mountain View, sitting in the Google Cafe right now, drinking lattes, and discussing the decision to eradicate WordPressfrom their index (which they have). Instead of admitting that PageRank is broken, they’ve decided to pass the buck onto Matt. Matt who wrote a program that has produced plentyof content for Google to index; a program who’s users are also using Googleadwords by the thousands. Matt who can barely afford to hire one developerto support his software.
Google, you have a chance to do the right thing. Fixyour CSS parser to reject invisible links. Take the incentive out, andgive Matt his PageRank back. Don’t push your own failings onto others. I know your interests lie with your shareholders, so please stopplaying the do no evil card. It smacks of hypocrisy.
Update: I have to admit, I’m feeling a bit for Matt. He’sgetting beat up across the web for one questionable decision he made. We allmake mistakes, and in my opinion this reveals the true weaknesses ofGoogle.
I think those that are bashing him don’t understand what it means to take every once of whatyou’ve got and put into a product — to make it live. I’m certain Matt had the best intentions for his product in mind. I’m sure his reasoningwas along the lines of, “Why not make a few litigation lawyers pay for WordPress?”
Before you step up on your “spammers are evil etc.” pulpit,just remember what this is all about: someone, a kid really, that lives to make really great software, and then give it away for free. He is willing do anything to support it, and maybe he went just a little too far. Cut himsome slack, and if you use WordPresssend him $50 for doing a good job.
Update 2: Dennis Forbes from the JoSforums makes a good point. Matt deceived some WP contributors, bynot telling them about this revenue generating scheme. That is a cardinalsin of OpenSource. Do not bite the hands that feed your project.
This happened with the Smoothwallproject. If I remember the story correctly, some of the main contributors felt that Dick Morrell was basically taking the code commericial, and hence taking them for a ride. The resulting discussions weren’t all that pretty, and the project endedup forking into IP Cop.