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Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

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Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#61

Post by dasmithii »

wickedOne wrote: post #32
dasmithii wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of the Miley Cirus insanity of past months. She gained more popularity than ever before by acting erotic and capitalizing on peoples' disgust. People were promoting her name in insults and jokes around the world. Here, the term "Rap Genius" is being popularized by controversy.

"there is no such thing as bad publicity…" would be really interesting to see their analytics data / wonder that will be down 80% as well

Unfortunately, that quote applies far to often. I'm hesitant to comment on threads like this for the same reason; I don't want to encourage such behavior with my attention

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#62

Post by jonknee »

An interesting side effect of this is the phenomenon of less sophisticated users who use Google as their address bar. If you run a decently well-known website you see this in your analytics reports (at least back when you could see Google search keywords)--repeat visitors coming to your site from Google after searching for your site by name. This is why "facebook" is the top Google search.

Since you can't find RapGenius by searching for it there is a decent sized audience of people who are under the assumption that RapGenius does not exist anymore. It's bizarre to the HN crowd, but very real. Check out their twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/RapGenius

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#63

Post by jakub_g »

wickedOne wrote: post #8

ironically google trends shows a massive increase in interest http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=rapgenius.com

Honestly I never heard about rapgenius before and never seen it in top 3 in google when searching for lyrics (using google from Europe, logged out). Almost always azlyrics is the top match for me.

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#64

Post by asdasga »

tptacek wrote: post #58
cynicalkane wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a game theory thing. There have been and will be a huge number of sites that would do anything to be #1 on Google. In an iterated game, punishments must have a deterrent effect. They might seem disproportional, but Google's goal is not "do what's best for the world in this one instance, ignoring the long-term effects". Google's goal is "make sure nobody will try to cheat Google's algorithms, now or in the future…

Well put. Also, maybe RG made things worse for themselves with their "apology", which attempted to point out other misdeeds by competing lyrics sites. Had that argument prevailed, the message sent might have been "it's probably safe to game Google as long as you can find other successful-seeming sites playing the same game", which would be a very bad precedent for Google to be facing.

Not to mention that it's about as sophisticated a response as you'd expect from a scalded 6 year old. "But Mummy, all the other boys were doing it too!!"

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#65

Post by YungLean »

Destitute wrote: post #54
YungLean wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have added value in their annotated lyrics, which comes in handy especially with cryptic word play/slang in rap lyrics.

You realize any Joe Schmoe can annotate what he personally believes the meaning of a particular lyric is. If you read any Kanye West lyrics on that site, they break down every line like it's some kind of literary divine intervention of pure brilliance by grasping at every straw possible.

That's because every Kanye West line literally is a literary divine intervention of pure brilliance, of course. Anyway, there is a verification system in place and you can also discuss the line through a commenting system. I usually find their annotations to be precise and correct.

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#67

Post by jonknee »

jawerty wrote: post #15

I'm not sure if it's right or wrong what Google did, but it was certainly a shit business decision. It's Google's job to be a proper search tool for anyone to get the best possible results when searching something as simple as "rapgenius". If I search "rapgenius" and don't get the hugely popular website http://rapgenius.com as the first result, then that's bad service on Google's end.

Humorously, now that RapGenius is dead in SERP it is not a hugely popular website.

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#68

Post by olefoo »

baldajan wrote: post #38

What I find shocking is a single company (Google) has the power to cause such a dramatic decrease of a website it deemed "unworthy". Sure, it can justify its actions by saying they broke the rules, but pressing the a "death button" for a website is not a solution. I feel as though Google needs to re-examine their core principles and determine how to better handle an issue like this. Otherwise, I suspect Google might…

Ummm. If Rap Genius had traffic of it's own where people were going to them directly, and google were somehow taking that away from them it might be possible to be sympathetic. But, Rap Genius made a calculated business decision to focus their efforts on getting search traffic and not on building a stable organic foundation to which extra traffic would have been a nice bonus but not the controlling factor in their success.

And really, what value does Rap Genius add to lyrics?

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#69

Post by bichiliad »

benologist wrote: post #23
beatpanda wrote: post #13

Which is really a shame, because RapGenius is a better lyrics site than all the rest by leaps and bounds. Google is acting like a cartel here and it's absolutely ridiculous. I hope they can beat this thing.

I greatly prefer AZLyrics - they give me the lyrics on a page with just the lyrics, that's all I want nearly 100% of the time. It's not even a contest: http://i.imgur.com/H1QixcN.png

Don't forget that rap genius didn't / doesn't want to just be a lyrics site, they also do the whole "what do these lyrics mean" deal. I'd have no idea what 2 Chainz was going on about half the time were it not for RG.

Re: Rap Genius Traffic Has Dropped By Over 80%

#70

Post by arkitaip »

tptacek wrote: post #52
arkitaip wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

schadenfreude by who? Certainly not by Google or the media.

By people who are not fans of Rap Genius, of which there are many. (I like the site, for what it's worth).

There have been some bad comments here for sure but the waste majority has been civilized and reasonable because ultimately black hat seo tears the fabric of web trust apart. Personally, I have nothing against RG but I do expect more from a YC startup.
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