View topic - Webmasters Behaving Badly :: WebProWorld

View topic - Webmasters Behaving Badly :: WebProWorld: "From what i have seen adsense and adwords tend to bring out the worst in webmasters.

E.g. clicking on adwords ads paid for by competitors, clicking on your own adsense ads and as recently discussed, using the company names of your competitors in your adwords ads, using their good name to lure people to your site.

Why does adsense in particular have this effect on people? Is it all to do with the money? Or do people like the challenge of cheating google?
What further measures can be taken to combat webmasters behaving badly"

Search Guys Really Don't Talk to the Ad Guys, Do They?

Traffick - Internet Search Enlightenment: "Geez, the Search Guys Really Don't Talk to the Ad Guys, Do They?

Anyone in the SEO game is by now reading Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO blog, and well they should. The 'real insider Googleplex scoop' is so often what emanates from Matt - and for those of us who don't get to 'that part' of the conferences, it's really illuminating reading.

I did scratch my head at Matt's helpful post about how to write queries. 'At Google,' he writes, 'we use [ and ] to mark the beginning and end of queries.'

Those of us over here in paid search world, of course, think [ and ] refer to an exact match in the AdWords interface."

Google Techs, Entrepreneurs Match Wits

E-Commerce News: Portals & Search: "Efforts to outsmart Google gall some webmasters such as Shari Thurow, who believes the best way to increase a site's search engine ranking is to offer valuable content and products. She describes the Black Hats as 'pathetic algoholics' because they are so obsessed with trying to figure out Google's algorithms.

Google knows it can't entirely avoid Black Hats.

"There are people who make their entire living off of Google, which is fine, as long as they don't push things too far," said Peter Norvig, Google's director of search quality.

But he said webmasters searching for secrets are better off looking elsewhere.

"Everything you ever wanted to know about Google is right there on the [online] forums that the webmasters run," Norvig said. "There is a lot of truth in there, but there's also a lot of crazy stuff. We just don't tell them which is which." "

Google Loosing Ground in China

Google Loosing Ground in China - Forbes.com: "A survey by a Chinese Internet research group has found that Google is losing market share to its biggest Chinese rival, Web search engine Baidu.com. "

Google Seeks to Develop Parallel Internet?

Slashdot | Google Seeks to Develop Parallel Internet?: "Google appears to be purchasing dark (unused) fiber optic cable across the United States with the intention of building its own alternative parallel internet that would presumably be called GoogleNet. Possessing such a thing could allow Google to offer internet access in the form of free wifi or other means and create a powerful captive marketing audience which Google could monopolize. Outside of these marketing opportunities, such a development in infrastructure could help reduce Google's long-term content delivery costs were it to take on more bandwidth-intensive activities in the future.' "

Google Groups : SEM 2.0

Google Groups : SEM 2.0: "RE sadness over Google messing with organic search: I'm reminded of the comment by a dot-com exec to a journalist, circa 1999, when asked if he was going to 'sell out' to a megacompany: ''Sell out?' This is a business, not a rock band! Of course I'm going to sell out!'

Google's IPO was their way of saying that it's a business, not a rock band. Nothing in business is sacrosanct, and I expect the public will catch on before too long. "

New Google Search Engine Results to Include Additional Site Links?

New Google Search Engine Results to Include Additional Site Links?: "The Google search engine results pages have remained relatively constant from a 'look and feel' perspective for some time. That is: title tag of the resultant site is listed first - hyperlinked to the entry - then a portion of the page or body text with the search term(s) bolded in the text - then the proper URL of the entry - followed by the file size and date.
.....

I searched under the phrase 'Top 10 Web Hosting'. It was then that I saw something that I had never before seen in a Google search engine result. In addition to the 'standard' search engine result as described above, there were 2 additonal lines of hyperlinked text...the first additional line contained four additional anchor text links (Partner5 - Web Designers - ASP Web Hosting - Partner2). Each link was directing to a separate page. Now instead of the 'standard' single URL/single link listing, I was looking at a single listing that was linking out to 5 separate pages. The last line of the search result (More results) linked to to the following Google search: 'site:www.top10webhosting.com top 10 web hosting'. This search shows the entirety of Google indexed pages for the site....

According to my search engine expert sources, this is typical of a 'test' that Google conducts from time to time. It may or may not indicate that the changes will become permanent. However, it is often the case that proposed changes will appear in this 'test' mode prior to a system-wide rollout.

It appears that the links in the first additional line are being scraped/spidered from the original listing page. I surmise this as the title tags of the linked pages are slightly different in syntax than the anchor text of the SERP links. However, the anchor text and links from the original result page (standard listing page) are identical to the anchor text and links in the additional line.

Will Google be creating multiple links per result across all listings soon? What would the listing for a site that has dozens of subcategories and sub pages (like eBay) look like under this paradigm? Will webmasters scramble to groom their internal links from their homepages - adding new anchor text and links? No one knows for sure, but it is interesting to see this type of test appearing at this time"

Google aims for Web developers' hearts and minds

Google aims for Web developers' hearts and minds | CNET News.com: "Google aims for Web developers' hearts and minds"

MediaPost Publications - When Is Arrogance Good? - 08/26/2005: "When Is Arrogance Good? by Mark Naples

Remember when Google's Search Engine didn't accept advertising? Many of us were using it for some time before there were such things as paid search, let alone sponsored links. Why did we use it? Because it was a better search engine which delivered better results in a simple, elegant interface. Google built a tremendous brand well before they monetized it. Of course, this was done by design.

In some ways, what Google did was to leverage Geoffrey Moore's "Early Adopter" strategy, designed primarily for B2B markets and make it work in the consumer market. Surely you recall having read his "Crossing the Chasm"? Build the brand and make its applications as user-friendly as possible, well before undertaking any monetization strategies. What they did was nothing short of well-executed genius applied in ways well beyond what any early adopter acolyte could have anticipated. Of course, others got there first. But, that's another column.

Think of how Google has been replicating that endeavor in the past 18 months, but toward a different product. With Gmail, Google Sidebar (which used to be called Google Desktop Search), and now their own Instant Messenger beta, Google has been providing free and useful applications that will put Google code on millions of users' hard drives.

Not only are they expanding their brand, they're expanding their footprint in ways that are meaningful to users' hearts..."

Google IM (almost) gets the message, users say | CNET News.com

Google IM (almost) gets the message, users say | CNET News.com: "Across the Web, many consumers hailed the software's quick download time, which takes a few seconds over broadband and about three minutes over a typical modem, according to the Google Talk Web site. They also applauded its minimalism. "

Inside AdSense - Google AdSense team blog

Inside AdSense: "Which is why we're proud to announce the launch of Inside AdSense here at adsense.blogspot.com. We think you'll find it useful and fun. We'll cover all of the items listed above, plus anything else that can help you to grow your AdSense revenue.

You can look forward to posts around 2-3 times a week from an assortment of Googlers involved in the operation of AdSense engineers, product managers, product marketing managers, and operations staff. We hope you'll visit often.

If you have suggestions for our blog, please send them to inside-adsense@google.com.

Posted by Gokul - AdSense Product Manager 8/24/2005 04:39:00 PM "our system now supports cost-per-impression (CPM) bidding. This lets advertisers try out their best ideas while we make sure that that the right economic incentives are in place.

Regardless of bidding method and format, all ads compete for placement on a page - and that means the winning ad meets a high bar for user value . Since site-targeted CPM ads and keyword-targeted CPC ads compete for every slot on a publisher's site, this improves how you make money.

For many publishers, site targeting actually serves as a sales team. When advertisers want to buy space on your site, tell them, "Just bid directly on our site using Google AdWords site targeting!" And the ads placed by our system will run alongside ads targeted directly by marketers"

Google Rumors: To Launch Instant Messaging Tomorrow

Google Rumored To Launch Instant Messaging Tomorrow: "Google Rumored To Launch Instant Messaging Tomorrow
Google to Deliver Instant Messages from the Los Angeles Times has unnamed sources telling the paper that Google will launched an instant messaging service called Google Talk as early as tomorrow. Aside from IM, the tool would also offer voice chat similar to what Yahoo Messenger currently offers."

Google changes irk advertisers, please publishers | CNET News.com

Google changes irk advertisers, please publishers | CNET News.com: "Publishers who have seen a bump in revenue through Google's advertising program are heaping praise on recent changes, while some advertisers complain of increased costs.
Google last Tuesday changed the way advertisers using its AdWords program bid on keywords, creating a minimum bid for each one based on a quality score it determines for the keyword. Google's policy statement says the change allows advertisers to resurrect keywords that previously had been disabled because of low click-through performance. "

Google tattoo

Somebody loves google

Google Tests New Results Pages

MediaPost Publications: "Google Tests New Results Pages"
"SEARCH GIANT GOOGLE IS TESTING a new way of returning natural search results, a source at the company confirmed Thursday. The new method involves inserting another set of results that are related to the user's queries within the natural listings. For example, a search for 'us' might return results related to the United States, and the abbreviation 'U.S.' at the top of the natural results, but then insert results relating to the keywords 'US Weekly' on the bottom of the organic results page. A Google source called the pages an 'experiment,' only being served to a select group of users on a test basis. The source added that the additional set of results for related terms are not sponsored by advertisers. -- Shankar Gupta"

Google plans big new stock sale

Google plans big new stock sale | CNET News.com "On Thursday, the eve of the first anniversary of its IPO, Google announced plans to sell 14.2 million shares of common stock on the public market, as seeks to raise more capital.

Google, which last year raised $1.7 billion with its long-awaited IPO, is hoping to raise in excess of $4 billion in this secondary offering, based on the current market price of $285 a share, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange commission.

"We anticipate that we will use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures," Google stated in its SEC filing. "In addition, we may use proceeds of this offering for acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets."

Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal

Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal: "The search giant quietly acquires the startup, netting possibly a key player in its push into wireless, 'the next frontier in search' "

Google vs. Geico: Geico Spin Machine Undermines Google Victory - 08/17/2005

MediaPost Publications: "Google won a decisive victory in the most important part of a the trademark infringement lawsuit brought by Geico. But you'd never know that by looking at some of the headlines to emerge this week, which cast the decision as a loss for the search giant."

How the Google News algo works

Cre8asite forums. Google - Tips on getting on the Google News homepage. [ Search Engine Optimization, Usability and Web Design. ]

ZDNet UK Begs Google for Forgiveness

Slashdot: "prostoalex writes 'In light of the recent CNet ban by Google folks at ZDNet UK are now not sure whether they will get the same treatment, being a CNet company. But, just in case, they apologize profusely:

'Acting under the mistaken impression that Google's search engine was intended to help research public data, we have in the past enthusiastically abused the system to conduct exactly the kind of journalism that Google finds so objectionable. Clearly, there is no place in modern reporting for this kind of unregulated, unprotected access to readily available facts, let alone in capriciously using them to illustrate areas of concern. We apologise unreservedly, and will cooperate fully in helping Google change people's perceptions of its role just as soon as it feels capable of communicating to us how it wishes that role to be seen.'' "

Wanted at Google: A few good chefs | CNET News.com: "Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story"

Google: An Apology - ZDNet UK Comment: "Google has decided that search engines should not be used to collate data. We wish to say sorry for believing otherwise"

Google's Bad PR Day : summary of recent stories

Google's Bad PR Day : Internet Search Engine News Jim Hedger reports: "Google has had another bad day on the public relations front yesterday. Three stories about Google made search marketing headlines which, for a company as interesting and innovative as Google is fairly typical...

The first and possibly most damaging item comes in the form of a directive issued to Google employees banning them from speaking with representatives of one of the Internet’s most popular news services, C-Net news.

Another headline yesterday noted that Google has issued an update for its popular toolbar. In this update, the controversial AutoLink feature of the toolbar is automatically enabled. AutoLink was included in the third version of the toolbar. When active, AutoLink adds links to a document if content in that document triggers it. Currently limited to proving links to FedEx (package tracking numbers), Amazon.Com (triggered when a book title or ISBN is mentioned), Google Maps (when street addresses are placed on a document), and vehicle histories (when a vehicle ID number is entered), AutoLink actively alters web documents, regardless of who created them. While the feature is said to assist Google users, the bottom line is that it will force content change on documents created, for the most part, by private webmasters.

A third headline yesterday led to an article about the troubles Google’s former National Sales Director, Christina Elwell faced when she told her former employer she was pregnant with quadruplets and coping with medical issues arising from the pregnancy. Just a few months earlier, Ms. Elwell was singled out for praise at a national sales meeting as a strong contributor, one of the people who made last year’s IPO successful. After telling her supervisor she was pregnant, Ms. Elwell was informed her position was terminated and offered a lesser role (which was eventually filled by someone else). "

Jim Hedger concludes: "It is however highly unlikely Google will emerge from this year with their “do-no-evil” reputation intact."