BuildMyRank.com is de-indexed by Google
BuildMyRank.com has admitted that the majority of its pages have been de-indexed by Google. There is much speculation about how many other similar sites have been hit. That Google is very much on their case can no longer be called speculation.
@danthies ah, glad you noticed that. Good to see at trafficplanet.com/topic/1885-aln… that it’s on peoples’ radar that they’re on our radar. — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 15, 2012
As Barry Schwartz at search engine round table says:
There are rumors that other networks have also been hit but none have come out saying so, outside of BuildMyRank.com. What is funny is that they said, “in our wildest dreams, there’s no way we could have imagined this happening.” And I am thinking, wow – people really think this will work in the long run?
So, if link networks and other scalable shortcuts and programmes are the basis for your link building. In 2012. What are you thinking?
Google Tweet a Panda Refresh
Reportedly tweeted by Matt Cutts himself and the first announcement of its kind made via twitter, there are interesting discussions going on about the effects of the refresh and whether or not it is actually Panda related!
Layoffs at Yahoo!
Kara Swisher at AllThingsD reports on plans to layoff thousands of staff at Yahoo!
Facebook plans to improve its search capabilities
Internal search is notoriously bad on Facebook and they appear to be making a big effort to make improvements. Bloomberg Business Week look into the possibility that they will eventually move into the global search market.
Google in trouble over privacy again
There have been many high-profile cases against Google on privacy issues, particularly in Europe. Now a Tokyo court has ruled against Google and demanded that they delete certain terms from their auto-complete. The case was brought by a Japanese lawyer who claims he lost his job and failed his subsequent applications because the Google auto-complete was associating his name with a series of criminal acts of which he had no knowledge. Google is refusing to be bound by Japanese law. From the Japan Times:
Before turning to the court last October, the man asked Google to delete certain words from the feature. Google refused on the grounds that the suggested words were being selected mechanically, not intentionally, and thus do not violate his privacy, the lawyer said.
This must surely be the cop-out of all cop-outs.
[...] You could divide the links that you build down further. Some built links are directory submissions, some are done through finding sites that allow you to add content and don’t notice the links. Some are done by simply contacting people and asking for them. Others are gained from link networks like the one Google just delisted. [...]