I’ve just noticed that Techmeme has got a PR4. The site probably has hundreds of thousands of links in its archives. Its business is to link readers to the most relevant and authoritative technology news around the world.

Why doesn’t the new Google algorithm distinguish between that model and paid linkage? So far as I’m aware inclusion in the body of Techmeme is not based on any monetary transfer. Syntagma is often included and no payment is asked.

The only exceptions are the webclips from posts of Techmeme’s sponsor sites. Do they count as text link ads too? If so, Google is now attacking the basis of the citation system it set up in its early years and is ominously beginning to confirm a suspected lack of tolerance of any online monetizing scheme other than its own.

We sometimes forget that Google is a business like any other. To own both the largest search engine and the most extensive advertising program on the internet must offer great temptations for muscle flexing to its management.

However, the use of monopoly powers is always counter-productive in the end. Without keen competition a company quickly loses force in the marketplace and the respect of its customers.

One wonders how far this downgrading process will go. There are hints that the company miscalculated this move and is having to put back rankings to many sites. Not here yet though.

So what is the new gold standard? What now counts as a penalizable link in the Google dispensation? In the age of information, the facts of this case are not easy to come by.