LOL! Google Classifies Google Places As ?Content Farm? Removes From SERPs

[Linda Buquet]

Oh this is GOOD! Laughed so hard I almost lost it.

Google Inadvertently Classifies Google Places As A “Content Farm” And Removes From Search Index

…Google’s new algorithm changes automatically classified Google Places as spam, say sources inside Google, and for a few hours most Google Places results were inadvertently stripped from Google search results.

The fact that many Place pages only contain content scraped from third party sites and little or no original content was a key factor in the automatic change, say sources. This has been a source of constant tension between Google and the sites they scrape...

 

[jcorkern]

That has got to be the most amazing article I have ever seen! That was just too sweet! What a find.

I have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard! ?It?s not like people are going to start using Bing.?

Are we starting to see the fall of Google? " A House Divided can not stand, and Google is starting to look a little divided.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yuck it up Jim.

Here's my comment I posted over there shortly after they did the deed.

Too funny! Good one!

Right after I read about the Farmer/Panda update the 1st thing I blogged over at Catalyst is the fact that Google Places is the biggest scraper and content farm there is. In my other company do Google Place optimization for a living so I sleep, eat and breathe Google Places and I'm getting the biggest kick out of this post!

Not only is Google Places a content farm, but the quality control is terrible. They scrape, merge and create duplicate Place pages with info from everywhere, often to the detriment of the business owner. Then on top of posting inaccurate and sometimes damaging info (like wrong phone numbers to Police departments) they plant ads to the companies competitors on the same page.

Happy April Fools a day early!

In hindsight, since it was an April Fool's joke I guess I should not have gotten serious and ragged on Google. Especially since Matt, Marissa and everyone else from Google is reading it. Guess if I ever need help for any of my Places clients I'm SOL.

 

[djbaxter]

That's okay, Linda. Google needs a little ragging most days. Somedays they need a lot of ragging.

 

[jcorkern]

You got me!

Too bad it was not real. But none the less facts concerning Google places!

I was really amazed at that comment and should have seen that, but I guess I fell into never, never land there for a min or two! lol. It was a good one.