Audiobook fungus
What does fungus have to do with audiobooks? Plenty, if you pay close enough attention. I’m borrowing the term from my friend Steve Eley of Escape Pod. I’m also taking a little poetic license with his definition and applying it to this particular situation.
I pay pretty close attention to the business of audiobooks as you might imagine — especially attentions in the world of digital downloads, mp3 files and internet marketing. Some sites have a unique product offering, like Simply Audiobooks. Others, like Audible, are the 800 lb. gorilla in the category. And then there are folks like us here at Podiobooks.com trying to put our own spin on the world of audio books by offering them in serialized format.
Personally, I think the sites above actually add to the conversation and generally contribute to the health of reading and literature in general, as well as providing valuable services to the “listeners” as well. And yes, there are others which I haven’t mentioned. Lots, in fact.
But a growing trend in this industry can only be classified as “fungus”, and it’s creeping around. Maybe you’ve seen a site with a menu bar that looks like this:
Which bears a striking resemblance to:
Look familiar? I’ve seen it presented as:
Or like:
All four of those images were captured by me in about five minutes of searching. All are from SuperGreatAudioBooksFromTheFourthDimension.com or some other domain of greater or lesser idiocy. All of these sites (not just those four, but the dozens I’m sure I can find) are simply wrappers around the same collection. It’s got to be as easy as 1) picking a domain name and 2) choosing your color scheme, and bang! you’re the proud owner of an online downloadable audiobook store.
Now while these fungi owners don’t have to worry about pesky things like maintaining an inventory, updating your database or any of the stuff that business have to deal with, some of the more enterprising ilk have taken to spamming Technorati, Del.icio.us, blogs, forums and the like. And this, happy campers, is where my weenie gets a little chapped. It’s been bad enough that I have to wade through their asinine posts designed to try and siphon as much Google juice as possible, flooding my aggregator with crap. I can handle that. Cost of doing business. But when they start showing up here and spamming my posts on my webite? Then I get a whole lot torqued.
These sites add nothing to the conversation. It’s homogenizing the offerings available, and probably turning more than one person off who’s just discovering audiobooks for the first time by making it look like every place offers the same stuff. Not true. Not true at all. I haven’t figured out a way to combat these nitwits. Maybe it’s just a fad that’ll go away. Maybe the search engines will take a hard look and say “Hey, this is the same stuff as that other site, just with a different wrapper” and delete them from the index, lowering the attractiveness of this offering. Fungus, I tell you.
Sorry for the rant. It’s been a long week, and when that spam came in… well I kinda lost it. Have a good weekend, everyone.
February 23rd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
The Fungus Amongus.
I have no opinion on this, I’ve just been waiting for years for a reason to use the phrase “the fungus amongus.”
Thanks!
February 24th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Scott has pretty much robbed me of the power to comment.
February 26th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I sympathize with your frustration. In our search for substantive content, all this radar chaff is something we can do without.
Here’s another phrase: “audio Lotrimin.” Now if someone can figure out a way to implement it…
February 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Had to turn on comment approval on SFFaudio for just this kind of fungus.
March 1st, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Scott,
It would be a great title, eh?
March 6th, 2007 at 9:14 am
It seems that google is placing the fungus on the Podiobooks home page now too.
March 6th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Steve,
Really? I’d be surprised if any of these types of sites are actually spending money on advertising. Doesn’t fit with their modus operandi. But I’m willing to be wrong on this count and will keep watch. Easy enough to block sites from appearing.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:49 am
“Hey, this is the same stuff as that other site, just with a different wrapper” and delete them from the index, lowering the attractiveness of this offering. Fungus, I tell you.”
I think you have hit the nail right on the head as quoted above. Google will filter these sites out, as they have nothing to offer there patrons, they are not prepared to put in the hard work required to give there visitors a good experience when visiting there sites.
That is why they resort to spamming, its the easy way out, or so they think
Thank you for allowing me my rant:)
Cheers
Pete