Personally, he's done nothing wrong. It's public, openly available information that some people want.
If that information is tampered by the underlying company, then people will probably want less of it. If companies want to pay Seth to put up alongside that content, how is that bad or wrong? Isn't that just like having sponsored links alongside Google SERPs?
Has Google 'brandjacked' IBM if it allows sponsored links next to IBM related search lookups, especially if those links are to Dell's site? Thus if Godin has brandjacked, then Google definitely has. Also, Google spiders IBM's websites to get this information. The result: IBM can advertise next to Dell's SERPs and Microsoft and others can compete with Google.
Why get angry? It's just a freakin' mashup. It's not like he's letting competitors to cross-post on one another's listings.
If Godin starts to make money, then competitors will come.
His site is like Alltop - a commodity service, nothing special, but there's probably only enough room in the market for 1.
People who are angry or jealous, don't get mad, get even and compete, there's nothing so far unethical I've seen.
(edit: in fact if he really want to cause a stir, why not just let competitors trash each other on each other's pages? So far that's not possible, and props to him for not allowing it, I could easily see that happening in competitive markets.)
Comments
Personally, he's done nothing wrong. It's public, openly available information that some people want.
If that information is tampered by the underlying company, then people will probably want less of it. If companies want to pay Seth to put up alongside that content, how is that bad or wrong? Isn't that just like having sponsored links alongside Google SERPs?
Has Google 'brandjacked' IBM if it allows sponsored links next to IBM related search lookups, especially if those links are to Dell's site? Thus if Godin has brandjacked, then Google definitely has. Also, Google spiders IBM's websites to get this information. The result: IBM can advertise next to Dell's SERPs and Microsoft and others can compete with Google.
Why get angry? It's just a freakin' mashup. It's not like he's letting competitors to cross-post on one another's listings.
If Godin starts to make money, then competitors will come.
His site is like Alltop - a commodity service, nothing special, but there's probably only enough room in the market for 1.
People who are angry or jealous, don't get mad, get even and compete, there's nothing so far unethical I've seen.
(edit: in fact if he really want to cause a stir, why not just let competitors trash each other on each other's pages? So far that's not possible, and props to him for not allowing it, I could easily see that happening in competitive markets.)