Video Interview with Matt Cutts: Widgetbait is Sooooo 2008

I sat down with the (now bald) face of Google, Matt Cutts, to revisit the widgetbait madness of 2008 and see if anything’s changed in how Google’s been handling widgets. Surprisingly, Matt says that the use of widgets to build links and distribute content has died down considerably, probably because Google has adopted a pretty straightforward stance of what’s appropriate and what’s not when it comes to creating widgets.

Watch the video below:

Matt Cutts Talks About Widgetbait Guidelines from 10e20 on Vimeo.

I was surprised to hear that, as a whole, social media is pretty straightforward when it comes to building links and doesn’t seem to give Google too much of a headache. It makes sense when you think about it — social media is user-powered and Google always emphasizes that you should provide a positive and solid user experience. If your users are sharing your content social and linking to you via social media, that’s pretty much as editorial as it gets, right?