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Sphinn Home » Analytics
SEOmoz’s Linkscape: Why the Backlash is Overblown
Analytics News Source: http://www.seobook.com
Published: Oct 21, 2008 - 10:49 am
Story Found By: dobata 1207 Days ago
Category: Analytics
So my timing on that last post was a bit off, but I still think the general thesis is valid. But now that there has been so much negative feedback I figure it is my job to play devil’s advocate and highlight reasons why most SEOs do not need to be too worried about Linkscape.
 Comments9 Comments  

Comments

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from barnaseo 1207 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Hi Dobata - I guess we submitted at the same time. Since I can´t withdraw my submission, I´ll just Sphinn yours :)

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from g1smd 1207 Days ago #
Votes: 0

You can edit title and text ...

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from Skitzzo 1207 Days ago #
Votes: 0

The point of this article seems to be that the backlash is overblown because all that data is already out there and most of it for free. Even if we accept that premise, SEOmoz has another problem, their $79 a month fee or whatever it is, isn’t worth it.

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from KateMorris 1207 Days ago #
Votes: 0

@skitzzo then don’t pay it. There are tons of paid bid management tools out there and excel works just fine for me. No extra to use that, so I do. I am sure though that those tools are very useful for other companies much bigger than mine though. It’s all in terms of if it’s of use to you. If it’s not, just don’t use it.

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from BrettBorders 1207 Days ago #
Votes: 2

For the most part, I think this backlash is niggardly sour grapes (something like what they call it ’Tall Poppy syndrome’ down under)... people picking on Rand’s project because it is game-changing and innovative... a big leap beyond Yahoo Site Explorer and Webmaster tools.Tons of people and bots crawl your site, use your bandwidth, violate your privacy a million times worse.... you just get the data in a crummy and limited format - or not at all.I think Linkscape is killer SEO tool and I am glad to have access to this data... it’s proven very useful in my work. I hope the Linkscape  gets more comprehensive and more complete, rather than more limited. For me and the kind of SEO work I do, the competitive advantages far outweigh the concerns of tiny minority of SEOs involved in shadier side of link building.

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from IncrediBILL 1207 Days ago #
Votes: 2

"Tons of people and bots crawl your site, use your bandwidth, violate your privacy a million times worse...."Maybe on YOUR sites, not mine ;)

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from SEMSEO 1206 Days ago #
Votes: -2

Why the backlash is not overblown???Linkscape is crawling my server, taking up my server resources, and my hosting company is asking me to upgrade to a better dedicated server and yet SEOMOZ is charging me and others US$79 for this tool which will reveal my links to my competitors. If Linkscape wants to crawl my server, then it has to offer its services for FREE like what the search engines did.

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from johnandrews 1206 Days ago #
Votes: 3

It’s become a common strategy in "social media" to come around after a controversy has quieted down, and then post "it was overblown" statements, restate "the facts" and skew the history in one way or another. Fact  is, the announcement and the facts were quite different, and the issue of scraping and reselling data is better understood as a result of these "controversial" discussions. It is also fact that, in direct response to what you say was "overblown", SEOMoz has agreed to work to follow the standards that they at first said were not important. Standards that practically every other automated bot has either agreed to or been cited for ignoring.The community should be thanking certain individuals who spent considerable time and effort keeping this controversy focused on the issues. They did it for reasons that do not include an $800 service fee. To now minimize their efforts, especially when they succeeded in getting SEOMOZ to admit they weren’t truthful and then agree to change their practices, would be shameful. Kudos to IncrediBill for doing what he does best... jumping in early and disclosing the true facts about what is crawling what, as evidence supported. If anyone is supporting "transparency" it’s guys like IncrediBill.

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from Mongoose 1205 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I think that the situation spiraled out of control thanks to alot of miscommunication and presumptions. I support SEOMOZ for what they do and use them avidly, but I will agree that alot was misrepresented at first. I commend Rand for stepping up and trying to explain the mo, but I also give props to IncrediBILL for doing his homework and keeping this in check. I will say that I am torn over this debate, it’s split into nay-sayers and praisers. I’ll agree that the current opting out method is a bad idea, and very much so a headache for large websites, but I support what SEOMOZ is doing.As for the calling out on ’Data for a price’ - I see it in this simple analogy. You could build a radio using cheap parts from your local electronics, sure, or you could buy a factory-made one at a fraction of the effort. Yes, you can get the data yourself, so why make a fuss over it? Go do it.

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