Google, PageRank, and blogs

IPBiz has written about Google's PageRank before. Two Google searches done today illustrate some points.

Making the rounds in mid-August 2010 is an article titled Jobless millions signal death of the American dream for many which included a rather sad reference to Camden, New Jersey:

Just how badly the great recession has struck this fragile New Jersey city, which is currently the poorest in America, was recently spelled out to [Richard] Gaines. In happier times – whatever that might mean for a city as destitute as Camden – local businesses on Haddon Avenue could at least rely on a bit of trade from those who made their money on the street.

Young men bought flashy clothes and got sharp haircuts and always paid in cash. But no longer. The economy is now so bad in Camden that even the criminals are struggling and going short. "Even the guys who got money from illegal means really don't want to spend it," Gaines said.

One might remember a recent story about how Camden was so poor, it was going to have to close one of its libraries.

There were several people mentioned in the "American dream" article. One was Steven Bilarbi :

Or New Yorker Steven Bilarbi, 62, who had worked for the same employer for 37 years, until 2007. He has not worked since, despite refusing to spend daytime hours at home and engaging in a permanent job hunt. He is now living off savings and depleting his pension.

"I go to job fairs. I don't feel like staying home. What would I do? Watch game shows and soap operas?" he fumed.

IPBiz wanted to know more about Steven Bilarbi, so a search was done on Google. 82 hits, all to the exact same story, which had been re-posted in a variety of places, eg

http://online-stocktrading.com/jobless-millions-signal-death-of-the-american-dream-for-many.html

http://gayolues.com/jobless-millions-signal-death-of-the-american-dream-for-many.html

http://rightways.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/jobless-millions-signal-death-of-the-american-dream-for-many/

http://www.dfwstangs.net/forums/showthread.php?p=6301079

82 copies of the same thing, but one still doesn't know who Bilarbi is.

Also on August 15, IPBiz followed up on an earlier post
Oracle takes on Google's Android over Java . It is so buried on Google searching, one won't find it in the first 25 pages of results. The IPBiz post was not a copy, but you won't be finding it using Google anytime soon.

***Earlier posts related to PageRank-->

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/11/is-blogging-like-journal-peer-review.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/05/blogging-may-be-personal-but-pagerank.html

***See also

Google Briefly Punishes Oracle by Removal from Google Search