I noticed recently in my site logs an increasing number of browser agent strings with the term Google Web Preview so I decided to investigate. The reason I decided to investigate is in my logs all I see is my web page being used by another site, but not an actual visitor coming to my site. For anyone with a site that means someone is using their site information as part of their site and that means people stay at the other site instead of visiting your site.
One of the powerful features of the internet is the sharing of information, but what happens with some sites, is they come along and take a whole chunk of your information and display it on their site. That helps the other site as they get your content that has taken you time and resources to create for free and keeps visitors at their site and doesn't send them on to your site. They gain at your expense.
The question becomes what is a fair amount of material that another site should display. In my opinion is should be just sufficient to whet a person's appetite to find out more. Providing too much means they can read all they need on the site which is using another person's material. I find Slashdot is a good example of this. I can read large chunks of a site's material and not have to go to the source site's material. In my humble opinion they are providing far too much material from another site.
Now how does this relate to Google web preview appearing in my logs. From what I can see Google is now enabling people to preview a page from within Google's search results. That keeps the person searching in Google's pages which means Google ends up with people on their site longer, increasing the chances of people clicking on their ads. This isn't yet available in Australia from what I can see, but if you visit http://www.google.co.uk/ and perform a search you'll see a magnifying glass next to each result. Click on the magnifying glass and you'll get a preview of the page. The person no longer needs to go to your site to read about your information and what you have to offer. Bing provides a similar feature, but from what I see it provides a little more text, whereas Google displays your page as you designed it.
In the past if someone found your site via Google you had a chance of getting a visit and the person would take a few seconds to read your material and then click off your site, or stay on your site and read more. Google's new approach effectively embeds your information into their site meaning your site adds to their content.
My feeling is this isn't good. We've seen the major media companies getting really upset because of their content being included by others. With the media company's size they can at least negotiate a deal. For small businesses your only real choice is to accept how Google treats your information. I personally think it is going too far. I don't think many people would like their site to appear in a window on my site.
The good thing is I believe as Google incorporates more material from others' sites it creates an opportunity for a search engine which puts the site owner's interests as a top priority. It won't happen tomorrow, but I believe it will happen because it is our material that has made Google as strong as it is today. Linking is OK, but incorporating too much goes a bit too far.
For those with sites you may wish to check out your site by using the Google UK site and see how your site previews. With some clever thinking you may be able to rework the preview that appears to encourage people to check out your site. Whilst Google's aim is most likely to keep people on their site longer, your aim is to encourage them to visit your site using whatever clever design technique you may be able to come up with.
Kelvin Eldridge
JustLocal - Local advertising with a money back guarantee
http://www.justlocal.com.au/
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