Sphinn - Matt Inman - an Evil Genius

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Matt Inman - an Evil Genius

Posted By: SiteMost 282 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://0at.org)
Category: Water Cooler

Evil? I don't think so... A Genius... hrmm still undecided on this one :)

14 Comments

Who Desphunn This (1)

Comments

from Oatmeal 282 days ago #

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I'm totally gonna grow a curly mustache and wear a monacle now.

from randfish 282 days ago #

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I can personally vouch for the fact that Matt's a genius. I call bullshit on "evil" though - you have to do something morally wrong to be "evil," this is just clever manipulation of the search engines' link-biased ranking system.

from qwerty 282 days ago #

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Yeah, but "evil genius" just has that special je ne sais quoi about it, you know? I suppose "super genius" would work too, but there's the danger of obsessing about the way it rolls off the tongue, and who knows what might happen while you're just standing there repeating, "Matthew Inman, Super Genius" over and over.

from SiteMost 282 days ago #

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All comes down with who's making the accusation - the search engines see clever manipulation of the SERPs as being morally wrong and therefor 'evil', but personally I wouldn't want to use the SE's as my moral compas either.

Perhaps Uber Genius? Mega Genius? My vote would go for "Matthew Inmann - really smart with that search an stuff... honest"

from AdamAudette 282 days ago #

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Hey Oatmeal - your widgets wock, er rock. I point people to those as examples of what's possible. Really like your design skills too - definitely genius and creative. Maybe a little evil but that's part of the genius.
Interesting the Guardian gave Danny a link but not your site (except the corporate one). And the tinyurl to Google's spam report - what's up w/ that?

from NickWilsdon 280 days ago #

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Extra interesting that the cash advance site is now banned in Google (from the comments on this article). Is there a connection with the recent publicity Matt?

from BrettFromTibet 280 days ago #

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Matt is one of the brightest people in online marketing. I don't think he's evil.

from randfish 280 days ago #

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BTW - Sphinn should really try to get his last name spelled correctly. It's "Inman" - two "n"s not three.

from Gab 280 days ago #

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Gotta sphinn that because I think Matt's a genius (the evil part is a joke rand, as you can tell from the comments lol)

from MattMcGee 280 days ago #

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Last name fixed. :-)

from JeremyLuebke 279 days ago #

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@NickWilsdon I know the cash advance site took a ranking nose dive well before this article. So did a number of other thin affiliate sites JustSayHi widgets were promoting.

More important to Matt I'm sure is that JustSayHi.com took a penalty due to this article. That's REALLY got to hurt them.

from shoemoney 278 days ago #

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@jeremyluebke Google nuked justsayhi a long time ago

I do not know 1 successful person who has not done some gray area stuff. This witchhunt of Matt is just silly.

from JeremyLuebke 278 days ago #

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@shoe I don't know about a long time ago. Back in January they at least ranked for thier own name. Maybe it happened after you touched on the tactics.

As far as whichhunt, I don't see that. I see this as an important issue that needs to be discussed. Not Matt, but the use of linkbait in this manner and what is acceptable to the big G and what isn't. And yes I agree that everyone has done some grayhat stuff. You can't find the line until you (or someone you know) has crossed it.

from Oatmeal 278 days ago #

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We lost our rankings shortly after the first two articles by the guardian were written:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/12/05/get_a_cash_advance_for_my_blogs_reading_level_im_not_sure_i_understand.html

I suspect that reporter told google, and we all know how google responds to SEO in the media.