Sites like Ripoff Report, Pissed Consumer and Complaints Board are still a danger for businesses and people with a low online presence. Here's what you can do to decrease the threat.
Had a bad experience purchasing from an online merchant? Google says it wants to protect searchers from that, and it may crackdown later this year with changes intended to prevent bad merchants from ranking well. The news came during the “How to Rank Better in Google & Bing” session that I moderated yesterday at the […]
The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation has written to the major US search engines of Google, Yahoo and Bing asking them to examine how some moving services are using “bait-and-switch” tactics on customers who find them through search results. Moving Ripoffs Each search engine received the same letter, covering how a committee […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Tablets Use Bing As Default Search Engine Ubergizmo is reporting that Bing (not Google) will be the default search engine for the Amazon browser on the new […]
In the wake of Google’s Panda algorithm update, its cadre of human search quality raters has a new task: giving Google specific quality ratings for individual landing pages. The new “Page Quality Rating Guidelines” section adds a whopping 32 pages to the handbook that Google provides to those human raters (via contractors like Lionbridge and […]
The New York Times reports Vitaly Borker, the merchant who boasted of being abusive to customers and claimed, inaccurately, that such behavior had a side benefit of producing good rankings in Google, has been sentenced. The sentencing was to four years in federal prison and ordered to pay approximately $100,000 in restitution and fines. Vitaly […]
Google Operating System Blog discovered a new feature to be released by Google named “Google Trusted Stores.” The landing page for this feature will be at google.com/trustedstores but it is currently not live. There was a video that was released today that was just made private. The video was shared on Google Operating System Blog […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Cracking Down On Toolbars Showing Too Many Ads Google has been notifying their AdSense for Search partners of a recent AdSense guidelines change that impact the use of the program […]
Vitaly Borker, the New York business owner who became notorious last year when he claimed that outrageous behavior toward customers was helping his website rank higher in Google, faces up to six-and-a-half years in jail after pleading guilty Thursday to several counts against him. According to the New York Times, Borker — owner of DecorMyEyes.com […]
Below are Search Engine Land’s 10 most popular stories from December 2010: 1) Where Is Santa Claus? The 2010 Santa Tracker List, From NORAD To Google Earth 2) 10 Alternatives To Delicious.com Bookmarking 3) NORAD Santa Claus Tracker 2010 Now Open! 4) First Day Review: The Google Chrome OS Cr-48 Notebook 5) What Social Signals […]
UK based SEO firm BrightLocal has released a second wave of findings from a consumer survey conducted in September 2010 (n=2,012 US & UK residents), which asked about local search behavior and online reviews. The first round of findings was released in December. This second release includes numerous findings. However I’ll focus on several that […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Googler Quits To Build Browser To Block Google Tracking TechCrunch reports Brian Kennish, a former Googler, quit Google a few weeks ago in order to build a browser that essentially blocks […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: It’s Alive: The Google Chrome OS Laptop Launch Event Google has announced that Chrome OS laptops are now available to consumers through a pilot program for early adopters who prove themselves […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: DecorMyEyes Merchant Vitaly Borker Arrested After NYT Piece On Google Rankings Just over a week ago, the New York Times introduced the world to Vitaly Borker, who boasted of being abusive […]
Just over a week ago, the New York Times introduced the world to Vitaly Borker, who boasted of being abusive to customers and claimed, inaccurately, that such behavior had a side benefit of producing good rankings in Google. Now another side benefit: Borker’s arrest. Arrest On Federal Charges From an CNBC article on the arrest: […]
Google News has recently dropped “a number” of websites that it says were not meeting the company’s quality guidelines. At the same time, the company says it’s also reviewing its policies governing what sites are included as sources in Google News. While not revealing exactly how many sites have been dropped, a Google News spokesperson […]
Earlier this week, the New York Times spotlighted how a merchant with bad reviews nonetheless was ranked well in Google. Today, Google has announced that changes to its ranking system are in place to prevent such things from happening again. Collecting Reviews But Dodging If They’re Used Google aggregates reviews about merchants from across the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s “Gold Standard” Search Results Take Big Hit In New York Times Story The New York Times has a great, detailed story out today about a merchant with an unusual marketing […]
The New York Times has a great, detailed story out today about a merchant with an unusual marketing strategy: be mean to customers. Any publicity, even negative publicity, means a win with Google’s ranking algorithms. Is he right? Maybe. Certainly the story illustrates the fallacy of Google’s “gold standard” search results. Rank Well With Bad […]