Maybe, its not to ban sites but to adjust the relevance of the link.
If you visit any webmaster forum, you see link buying and selling where the connecting sites have nothing to do with each other. They are just playing the SEO game. If those links are ignored when considering relevance, then searches can lead to better results.

“But advertisers are different. I’ve vetted them. They make sense for my audience.”
This is great but, unfortunately, you are in the minority, there are thousands upon thousands of sites where this simply isn’t true.
For example, take a look at this site:
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/relevant-link-exchange-forum/
I’d bet the overwhelming majority of the links are not helping users at all, even the state purpose is not to help users but to game the search algorithms.

“Google is now trying to dictate what we can and cannot do. ”
They can not dictate anything to anybody. They run a search engine, they are not an ISP. Simply put, if you make your site useful for visitors, and forget about the search engines, then you will have traffic.

Good post, I completely agree. Google has taken a new step with the one…

Paul – I won’t disagree that there are abuses. But thats not the point. I am saying there is a *huge* level of gray-area, and Google is trying to simplify that into right and wrong. I pulled out BMW as an example of hypocrisy, and then the WordPress default links as a grey example. They aren’t paid, but they have absolutely no relevance to 99.9% of the blogs that link there. So how do we treat those? It seems to be a simplistic response to a complex problem, and that makes me angry.

Buzzroid – you could blame us a bit for the sponsored theme meme, as we had one of the highest profile sponsored themes released (over at BloggingPro). I will address that later – but its unfortunate no one has mentioned how we were very upfront about it, and you could remove it if you want. It likely was still a bad idea … again, post for another day

Mike + Markus – thanks for getting the point People forget that it isn’t so easy to just go use another engine – Google is a major portion of search, and you have to play by their rules.

Great article, and very thought-provoking. Good job.

Ahmed,

Great Post . I think the broader issue is something that you’ve already touched on: Google’s dominance and “mind share” on search, and how their algorithm has become as much of an audience, as blogger’s actual audience is!!

See also:
http://digg.com/tech_news/Google_s_Grip

The fact of the matter is that if a publisher wants to be “found,” they can’t afford to neglect Google. I’m still withholding judgment, but this latest development of enlisting people to report paid links, seems rife with numerous problems to me.

Google has done some great stuff – I love Google Webmasters. Sitemaps, etc etc.

I just believe this is over-reaching – there are too many gray-area issues that they seem to be sweeping under the rug.

Watch the Co-Founder of Google, Sergey Brin, talking about various aspects of Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business.

Here’s the website:

http://www.thoughtware.tv/site/show/331

[...] E aproveitando o ensejo, para os que ainda acreditam naquela história de “do no evil” ou que acham que como a Google lida com seus negócios é problema só dela, recomendo este artigo. Especialmente para aqueles que precisam de propagandas e do fluxo de leitores que o serviço de busca mais usado do mundo lhes garante. [...]

Regarding number 4: As far as I’m concerned, Matt and co. have the right to make their own blogs the default links, as they spent the time and money to make WordPress a reality. I really don’t consider their taking advantage of the platform’s popularity unethical, since as the originators, they have full control over everything.

Nice finally someone else willing to bash Google a bit without fear of them secretly bumping your site down a bit in the search rankings.

Keep it coming!