Am I Famous Now…

Some days ago in my Digg Democracy entry I wrote following.

When using Google or any other search engine I don’t want to land on a social bookmarking site to find a link. But this is not the fault of Digg (or any other social bookmarking site).

Only some days later Search Engine Land starts the debate : Does Digg Belong In Google?

Lets rephrase the question?

Why IS Digg in Google?

The answer is simple, but double.
Digg is in Google because

• Many sites link back to Digg.
• Digg generates much revenue over Google (and not only Adsense), over the first time, occasional site visitor.

Is there a conspiracy? Nope.
This is a classic example of how Google can make or break a site.
An avalanche effect. But exactly the same avalanche effect tends to happen to sites who get dugg : thanks to digg they are read more and also get more links to their article.

Except… Digg gets thousands of links from bloggers who have this dream of getting dugg¹. And improve Digg’s Trust Rank.
Also, Digg does not create any content, but serves a whole community as go-between. And many times, especially with newer sites, gets ranked higher than the original article. But that doesn’t really comply with Google’s Quality Statement.

So Google brings Digg quite some traffic. Certainly also many digg first timers. Google non-specialists. People who don’t use Google Preview, who don’t have personalized Google settings, who don’t exclude sites like Digg from their searches… and the list goes on.
Non-geeks.
People landing at Digg, noticing a big square box with an sponsored ad to fe. Diggnation. Hmmm… maybe that is what a was looking for.
One adsense click.

Now this could as well have been a visitor send to a commercial site, an Adsense (or even Federated Media) advertiser. Did the googler find anything specific? Nope.
Wouldn’t it have been more logic to rank the original article above Digg.
Or rather rank the original article, and mention under the article

This item also got submitted to Digg

And that even in cases where the Digg result only would appear on SERP #7.
Not only Digg, but any major social bookmarking site could be inserted here.

And in the end everyone would be happy. The googler, the plexers, but also social bookmarking sites, because sometimes they would loose their ranking for a query, but in many other cases they win a more prominent display/position. Even if only on a secondary spot. But potentially they could obtain a listing for almost any #1 listing in SERPs.

I totally agree that those social bookmarking sites have established their position online. And shouldn’t be blacklisted anymore. But the googler wants to find the original article and not the smartly written excerpt, a teaser to get dugg.
So lets combine both search results.

Muhammed, what do you think of this option? I agree (partially).
My first statement was too harsh.

I must admit that I don’t click on the Digg link, especially not since I use Google Preview for FF. Besides that I am adblind.

¹ Think of all those buttons begging to digg, delicious, whatever bookmark a blog entry.