"During the 60 days, the PageRank of www.google.com/chrome will also be lowered to reflect the fact that we also won’t trust outgoing links from that page."
That was the strangest part, for me.
Google clearly can trust outgoing links from www.google.com/chrome.
Its clear they had no intention of gaming their own system with this campaign. But they obviously feel the need to act in a 'beyond reproach' way, to avoid the accusation of conflicts-of-interest.
In one way its good that they are being held to high standards; on the other hand, this is resulting in less relevant search responses, for no real benefit to anyone (including those whom antitrust law, which they might be thinking about, is there to protect).
Hard to say what what the right thing to do is.
Sometimes, it looks like its a tough job to maintain the 'dont be evil' image.
The thing is, this just doesn't matter. They still have a Chrome ad at the top of every page and if people are looking to find Chrome it's already simple. The outgoing links don't matter, because the sites the Chrome page links to are also easy to find.
That was the strangest part, for me. Google clearly can trust outgoing links from www.google.com/chrome.
Its clear they had no intention of gaming their own system with this campaign. But they obviously feel the need to act in a 'beyond reproach' way, to avoid the accusation of conflicts-of-interest.
In one way its good that they are being held to high standards; on the other hand, this is resulting in less relevant search responses, for no real benefit to anyone (including those whom antitrust law, which they might be thinking about, is there to protect).
Hard to say what what the right thing to do is. Sometimes, it looks like its a tough job to maintain the 'dont be evil' image.