Google Inside

Well, honestly, I can get a PR8 linkback for $20,000. As I was browsing around the web early yesterday, I realized that Apache.org had a sponsorship page. After digging a little bit further, I found out some more details about these sponsorships.

Platinum Sponsorship

• Donation level: $100k / year
• Your logo (max size: 250×125) on our ASF Thanks page with link
  • Logo Location: top section of page
  • Logo in rotating placement
  • Logo in your own row
• ASF provided Platinum Sponsorship logo for your site
• Joint press release with the ASF

Gold Sponsorship

• Donation level: $40k / year
• Your logo (max size: 150×75) on our ASF Thanks page with link
  • Logo Location: upper-middle section of page
  • Logo in alphabetical placement
  • Logo in possible shared row
• ASF provided Gold Sponsorship logo for your site
• Personal provided quote for your PR

Silver Sponsorship

• Donation level: $20k / year
• Your logo (max size: 75×38) on our ASF Thanks page with link
  • Logo Location: lower-middle section of page
  • Logo in alphabetical placement
  • Logo in shared row
• ASF provided Silver Sponsorship logo for your site

Apache Foundation Sponsorship Details

Hmmm alright, that’s cool. So Google and Yahoo! both donate at least $100,000 per year the Apache Foundation. But wait…according to Google, you are not allowed to pay for a link. Right there, in black and white, it states that they’re paying for a link.

Are these sponsors just getting these links and logos displayed as a bonus of the sponsorship or what’s the deal with it?

More importantly, why did this Apache page stay at a PR8 when there were hundreds of other sites that had their PR lowered. Oh, and please do note, I nofollow’ed that link because I think it’s spam.

I’m just very confused about whether or not Google can make up their mind on paid links. Are they okay? Are they not okay? Why you do you do it if others can’t? Isn’t that a little hypocritical? Oh yeah, Google, let’s look at your mission statement one more time.

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Does this mission really care about paid links? It certainly does not specifically say anything about it. But, oh yes, that annoying but, let’s focus at the trail end of the mission statement: “…accessible and useful.” Do paid links make the web any less accessible or useful? Well, that may be a large part of the debate.

I certainly feel that paid links and sponsored links are just part of the natural order of the web. It’s another form of advertising. If I can donate money to Apache for a link back to my site that isn’t nofollow’ed, I don’t understand why the little guys can’t make a few bucks here and there.