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Sorry to offend your sensibilities but I think the article is valid. I don't agree with MS forcing users to use live search and I don't feel any differently about Firefox forcing Google as the default. The other problem I have with Firefox is the fact that Live Search is not even in the original drop down for search engines. Live search may suck but it is still more important than the Amazon search engine.
I use Firefox exclusively and rarely use Live search but there should be a choice for the users and at the very least Live should be available in the drop down without being forced to add it.
I don't think anyone pities Microsoft. The article simply discusses the hypocrisy of Google. Google fought to force Microsoft to provide consumer choice when setting the default search engine in IE and then they go ahead and work with Firefox so that Google is the default. On top of that Microsoft is not even in the default search engine drop down, you have to click Manage Search Engines to choose. While Microsoft may not be the biggest search engine it is is bigger than all of the defaults besides Yahoo and Google. I know everyone hates Microsoft and there is good reason for some of that but if Google is going to fight for consumer choice it should apply to them and their partnerships as well.
Yeah, the end user argument is just not valid. If the site does not provide a good end user experience it is not going to be profitable. Good black hats use different techniques than white hats but the ultimate goal is the same. To make more money whether it is through an affiliate program or a direct sale from the site. Wikipedia uses White Hat SEO but there are sites with much better and more accurate content that can't be found because they apply no SEO (or it is not as good). You could argue that Wikipedia offers a poor user experience because of the questionable nature of some of their content. Just because they get the ranking from white hat techniques does not make them any more ethical than the black hat sending users to the content they want through a different technique.
I guess I am lucky because FriendFeed and Twitter are essential tools for me and most of my co-workers. Our managing partners use both all the time as does most everyone else. Both are great communication tools to spread information and news throughout our company without being forced to deal with email, which can be just as obtrusive. I understand the point that constant updates can be obtrusive but using desktop tools for notification can allow you to quickly read updates without much effort. If I am engrossed in a project it is easy for me to ignore them.
I can see how both could be a problem but at my office they have become extremely important for everyone to share information and communicate without the hassle of Outlook.
Yeah, it provides a lot more insight into the issues they are facing and the complexity of the problem. BTW, I dig your avatar.
Story: Is SEO Spam?
Funny that you are marginally link spamming Sphinn and calling SEO spam. Most of my work in SEO is to help sites with quality content acheive better search engine traffic. These sites are relevant and worthwhile to users who find them. I simply make sure that the content is presented in a way that appeals to search engines and users. Sure, quality content is of utmost importance but if a search engine can't find or read it when they get to the page it is not going to rank well. As an SEO I use my expertise to help search engine find and read that great content. This is not spam.
Story: Is SEO Spam?
bbcarter, not sure if you are responding to me but I did read the article and I agree. I was responding to Ghostblogger's assertion that SEO is spam because it us used to make sure undeserving sites rank well due to SEO. I simply wanted to point out that much of the SEO work most SEOs are doing is to help high quality sites rank well by helping them make sure their content is easily crawlable and able to be read by search engines.
Story: Is SEO Spam?
not directed at you bbcarter. Sorry for the confusion. I was pointing out the two link drops by ghostblogger
This does not necessarily prove your hypothesis especially if the blog you used to test this was a blogspot blog.
I think you are misunderstanding what I am saying. It does not matter that particular blogspot blog did not exist and there were no search results for the keyword you used. Blogspot is Google's blog network and any time a new blog is added under the blogspot domain that blog will get crawled and indexed. So, simply by adding a blog to blogpsot will bring Google to that blog. Since the keyword you used has no competition it will be easy for it to rank as it will be the most useful (and only) site that uses that keyword.
To make this test valid you would need to put a site up on its own domain and outside any of the blog networks that automatically get crawled when a new blog is added.
Yeah, bbcarter. I have worked in house and at agencies and the agency environment is much more dynamic and interesting long term. Working in house was a great experience though as it allowed me to hone my skills and really dive into one site and watch it grow and evolve. After a while I did get a bit disinterested though, which is why I moved back into the agency side.
Yeah, it just makes them (and all SEOs) look bad. Even good information will be ignored by those who used these "tools" and were burned.
Yeah, and you would think they would at least try to be a bit more discreet when they do it. This was easy for anyone to see.
Yeah Kevin, it is an important topic but these common sense intitiatives will creative definitive and workable standards :>)
He has a forum, go check it out. Just do a search for Doug Heil. He probably hates you though since you are a Sphinn member and he considers Sphinn the ultimate SEO spammer haven.
I really like the advice to leave a voice mail with the Search Quality team telling them all of the techniques being used. Good stuff.
Story: Another Sphinn Spam Rant
Yeah, I think the problem is that people ignore it instead of reporting it. I know that whenver I see Spam I report it immediatly. I also think that the mods could be a bit more active when they see a Spam report. In the end it is up to all of us to keep it clean and we need to work together to do that.
Story: Another Sphinn Spam Rant
Haha. I am not trying to indict anyone. I just get annoyed when I see so much spam here and it has been getting worse. I am not trying blame anyone except the spammers but I want to start a dialog to see if there are some additional spam protection options that could be implemented.
Keep up the good work and I will keep sending the reports to you.
Story: Another Sphinn Spam Rant
Thanks Brent. Yeah, I am sure as Sphinn becomes more popular it will face more and more spamming.
Story: Another Sphinn Spam Rant
g1smd, please don't take this as an attack on the anyone here. We should all be in this together and it comes down to everyone doing their part. I am confident that a huge part of the spam issue is that many members simply ignore it, which needs to change. However, when I see the same spam post here for more than 24 hours it gets pretty irritating. If I could report things more than once (wait, can I do that) I would and I am trying to call out all Sphinners to report Spam when they see it. I want this to continue being a quality resource for SEO/SEM and if everyone in this community works together it can.
Blatant comment spam with link drops (nofollowed no less) on Sphinn, really???!!!!
Yeah, I plan on attending SMX East this year and I am hoping to find some more advanced sessions.
Utah: True, he's got the double negative (so I suppose it ends up as a positive).
James: Pure evil
Gab: Yeah, when you are intimate with the law you know all the ways to be shady while staying legal.
Glendz, that would depend. If there are other more important factors that can be fixed those should be done first. Also, if there are egregious errors that break the crawler you should clean those up. After the important stuff is done you can go back and clean up the code. It won't hurt and may make things easier for the crawlers but there are many more important things to work on before you start worrying about validation.
Story: Traditional Ad Agencies still don't get search