Linking - The Internet “Word of Mouth”
Recently a Nielsen Global Survey was released confirming again that word of mouth is the most powerful selling tool. There were other interesting parts to the survey, too, including stats on how much people trust different forms of advertising. But as we see over and over again in marketing, word of mouth is King. In the online world, linking is a form of word of mouth. When you link out to another site, you are vouching for that site, and people who trust you will also trust your recommendations.
In the time before search engines, people used links to get around the Internet. It was the only way people could find new sites, unless they already knew the URL. When search engines were invented they cataloged pages on the Internet and took into account the amount of times someone “vouched” for a site. Now people didn’t have to rely on other’s first-hand word of mouth referrals, the search engines would organize that information for them.
On Wednesday we learned that AP is suing Moreover for “copyright infringement” by displaying titles and snippets of stories on their news aggregate site with out permission. By linking to a page, your are recommending it and citing it for other people to see. When writing a book or article, you cite sources, but do not need to obtain permission to use those sources. Providing links is no different. If this suit goes through, what will happen to the many news aggregate sites, or even search engines? The Internet relies on the ability of people to link (or cite) other sites - that’s why they call it the “Web.” Why would you want to be left out of that Web?
