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December 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Blogger gets request to de-Google
Suppose you're an online vendor who's displeased with the ranking of your business Web site on Google. Well, you could try tweaking your ad words. Perhaps you could consider better marketing. Heck, maybe you could contact Google for answers or guidance. You might get lucky.
Or you might conclude that the best approach is to ask that people with higher-ranked sites de-Google themselves immediately.
Astonishingly, an unnamed e-merchant out there in cyberspace has taken the latter approach, sending threatening letters to blogger Dean Hunt. (Hunt's blog, by the way, is called "Deano's World - Internet Marketing, Madrid, Life, SEO & More." It appears to cover all types of topics.)
Anyway, the first odd e-mail he received, sent Dec. 8, reads as follows:
"My name is [edited] and I run [edited].com""I have been running the site for over two years and we have been ranked very highly for the search term [edited]."
"On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term."
I know what you're probably thinking: What's the search term? Well, Dean hasn't shared that bit of info in his posts, nor the name of his adversary's business. Maybe he doesn't want to give Mr. Whacky extra publicity -- or maybe he's just trying to further protect his Web ranking by shielding his super-secret search term.
Dean did reply to the letter, though, essentially telling the sender that: a) he never attempted to rank for the mystery term; b) the fact that he does may be more of a commentary about the quality of the complainer's site; c) there's nothing he can do to remove himself for Search Term X; and d) the angry Web vendor should probably spend more time tweaking his site than e-mailing ridiculous requests.
Lo, Dean received a reply from the mystery merchant -- one with a more threatening tone:
"You have to understand Dean that an online business should be higher in Google than a blog.""Don't forget that Google is a business as well, they obviously make more money from other businesses than they do from blogs, so it is in their interest that I am higher than you for certain searches."
"I have also contacted my lawyer about this issue, so you should expect a letter in the post very soon."
While we wait to hear from Mr. Nutjob's attorney, how about we speculate on just what search term he wants to claim as his own? My co-worker Stephanie suggested it's SEO, which is in the title of Hunt's blog. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and apparently, Hunt knows a thing or two about that subject -- at least relative to others out there.
Also, have you ever received (or sent?) similarly odd requests to anyone?
Posted by Ted Samson on December 13, 2006 01:12 PM
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The cloning information site that I run (www.reproductivecloning.net) has slipped slowly over time from the first page of google's "cloning" results to the third. Perhaps I should follow in the footsteps of Mr. Hunt's Nemesis and demand New Scientist, the National Academy of Science and the NIH delist themselves for my benefit!
Regards,
Roger
Admin, The Reproductive Cloning Network
http://www.reproductivecloning.net
"Don't forget that Google is a business as well, they obviously make more money from other businesses than they do from blogs, so it is in their interest that I am higher than you for certain searches."
YEAH RIGHT! Google's best interest is to have the best results possible, and from the letters of Mr. A Retard, I WOULD rather read your blog then do business with him. Google's motto is "Don't do evil" or something like that... BESIDES he can PAY Google to have a result at the side of the page. Then they will make money off of him. Otherwise, they could care less.
Quite often when I try to look for detailed information on something I get hundreds of pages of online businesses offering to sell it to me (even if it does not exist as a product!) I would like to exclude businesses from my searches!
Are we sure that isn't part of his Viral marketing campaign?
http://deanhunt.com/viral-campaign/
Posted by: Sam at December 14, 2006 06:22 AMThis mystery correspondent sounds like a douche with no grip on reality whatsoever.
I wonder if he'd seem as much so, though, if he had offered to pay Dean for the removal of the word. Not that such a removal is able to happen in a snap.
But since he has lawyered up on no solid legal ground whatsoever, he probably isn't savvy enough to even consider offering payment for such a request.
Posted by: Zach at December 14, 2006 06:41 AMAs a matter of cost effectiveness, wouldn't it be cheaper and more expeditious of Mr. A. Retard to pay Google for placement, over paying a lawyer for his time?
Or, go out and purchase a thesauraus, and find search terms in several parallel universes?
Or, grab http://pclinuxos.com and practice elevating search term status in the real world?
Why http://pclinuxos.com you say? Google runs it's sister!
Pity the fool.
Posted by: linuxiac at December 19, 2006 04:07 AMIf its not a cleverly disguised marketing ploy, then its another example of the decline of modern intelligence. Whatever happened to the concept of using common sense? Save the lawyer fees and spend the money tweaking the web site. (or buy placement from Google)
The mystery person is very lucky that Dean Hunt is not revealing his search term or website. The blogosphere is predictably effective in elevating the rank of Hunt's blog, and adding new search terms (douche? retard?) for the website of the requester - just ask Senator William Napoli.
Posted by: Ontario Emperor at December 19, 2006 11:52 AMWhy should we believe Dean? This has all the ingenuity of a ruse... Maybe I'm Dean... or maybe not... The beauty of blogging is that anyone can make an unsubstantiated assertion, and the public runs screaming "global warming"...
Posted by: Looking Back at December 19, 2006 01:45 PMQuite often when I try to look for detailed information on something I get hundreds of pages of online businesses offering to sell it to me.I would like to exclude businesses from my searches!This article is very interesting for making money with google adwords, click on the link
to find similar article make money with google adwords
If I was Dean Hunt, I'd challenge him to a naked pig rasslin match and then post it to YouTube. Doesn't really matter if the guy wins or the pig wins, but I'd bet on the pig!
That'd get this nutjob the kind of website traffic that he really deserves...
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