Google launched Scraper Report, a tool that fights web scraping. However, the search giant ended up being mocked online because some netizens think Google itself is the world's biggest scraper, according to VentureBeat.
Google expert Matt Cutts announced the said tool on Twitter yesterday. Digital marketing expert Dan Barker followed up the announcement with a screenshot showing an example of Google scraping a huge amount of content from the web, most notably from Wikipedia. Larry Kim of WordStream retweeted Barker's post. By Friday morning, the original message has been tweeted more than 14,000 times already, the report detailed.
Barker's tweet has reflected the exact feeling of online marketers towards Google. The search giant has become so big that the search market already revolves around it. Because of its constant updates in a bid to improve web search, some innocent sites are hurt in the process. One example is JC Penney. A few years ago, Google whipped the retail chain for suspicious-looking links. Rap Genius is a recent victim of the same erroneous punishment from the search giant, the report explained.
More often than not, Google's algorithm updates result in a better web search experience for online consumers. However, there are just times that its actions appear unpredictable and unfair, VentureBeat reported.
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