Google alert

  Everyone, from elementary school students to investment bankers, knows the power of Google and how it’s changed and reshaped the way almost everything is done today — media, finance, homework, job-hunting, intellectual property, etc. Marveling at Google has become such a cliche that I hesitate to even bring it up, but recently I’ve seen still more evidence of its overwhelming influence.

Since our recent upgrade of our website to finally get more in line with existing standards of search engine compatibility, we’ve noticed that every time we post a celebrity’s name, we get a big uptick in site visits through search engines. We especially saw this phenomenon come into play with our recent coverage of the Savannah Film Festival. (And make no mistake: People all over the world are doing Google searches for “Michael Douglas.” A lot of people.)

When you see the numbers on this, all of a sudden you understand why it’s so difficult for the media to resist covering celebrities instead of issues. If you’re constantly being told by your company to maximize your internet presence and revenue, and then you see what happens when you post the name of a celebrity, well… only a fool doesn’t do the math, even if it’s just in their head.

To me it just proves what I’ve suspected all along: The media covers celebrities because covering celebrities gets more readers and more viewers. That’s not to condone it, but the next time you ask yourself “Why the @#$% is Britney Spears always on my TV?” think about what I’m writing here and you won’t wonder anymore.

Another addictive phenomenon is the sheer speed and ease with which Google allows influential websites to link to you if they choose. The biggest fish I’ve managed to hook so far — quite unintentionally — was mediabistro.com, which featured a snip from my Festival interview with Charlie Rose and a link back to the full story, within hours of it being posted here. I’ll certainly take a shout-out and a link from Mediabistro anyday. But not everyone understands the concept of the “fair use” copyright doctrine, though.

As part of our Film Festival coverage I interviewed Jim Tusty, director/producer of the documentary The Singing Revolution, which deals with a chapter in the history of the Baltic nation of Estonia. I didn’t know much about Estonia before the interview, but here’s one thing I learned soon after that article was posted on our website: Estonians are really, really passionate about their country. I mean, whatever you do, don’t mess with Estonia.

Thanks to Google’s diligent bots, the Tusty interview immediately started aggregating on all kinds of Estonian websites — including the actual Estonian embassy. And by “immediately,” I mean within a couple of hours, if that. Link after link, all featuring my interview (almost always copied in full) and my name (well, at least they remembered to lift that also while they were at it).

I’m happy I was able to provide so much pleasure for our Estonian readers all around the globe, I really am. And I admit it’s a kick to see my name and work being read in such a range of international venues, and by people who obviously care so much. And connectsavannah.com got some love as well, with a lot of hits back from those same Estonian websites. Any writer would feel validated by this. But I was left with a certain Pandora’s Box feeling about it as well….

The same thing happened with my interview with John Hennegan, director of the doc The First Saturday in May. It immediately began making the rounds on any website having anything to do with horseracing — also copied in full and with the small compensation of featuring my byline.

As far as the rest of the world is concerned, I’m a respected Estonia expert and horseracing correspondent. Who knew?

Thing is, all that’s totally illegal. Like, big-time illegal. College students are getting successfully sued by corporations for thousands of dollars, just for downloading a few songs. Taking the intellectual property of a media company like ours, Morris Multimedia, and running it in full without permission at your outlet is — well, it’s theft, pure and simple. But therein lies the dilemma: You can’t sue the whole world, and who really wants to put Google out of business? We all need it too much.

Epilogue: Of all those links I got, page after page of Google hits, only one person called to ask permission to republish a story — the editor of the Mid-Atlantic Racing News, who wanted to run the Hennegan interview. Impressed that he’d even bothered to call, I just said: Make sure you credit Connect Savannah — and make sure you spell my name right.

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