Google’s John Mueller talked about the frustration some may feel when you write a breaking story about a topic no one has covered yet other web sites are outranking you for that story, even though these other web sites link to you as the source. John said they experience the same thing on their webmaster blog.

This topic came up at the 35:11 mark into a hangout from a couple weeks ago. The question was:

John said that he would love to see examples of when this happens. He also added that this happens to them a lot on their Google webmaster blog. Where they would write something and then I’d cover it and outrank them for it. He said it doesn’t really bother them that much because they just want to get the information out there.

Truth is, it happens to my writing here and there as well. I don’t get upset when another blog outranks me if they link to me because the site linked to me. They did the right thing and linked to the source. I do get upset when someone basically cites what I came up with and do not link to me. I want the information out there but I want the reader to know where it came from, even if I did not rank in the first position in Google for it.

John said in the hangout at the 39:46 mark:

Here is the video embed:

Hat tip to Glenn Gabe:

Forum discussion at Twitter.