Surprise? Not really. Scammers already trying to game Google +1

[djbaxter]

Seriously? Who did NOT see this coming from Day 1?

B]Websites Selling Google +1?s, Will Google?s Results Be Gamed?[/B]
by Frank Watson, SearchEngineWatch
July 28, 2011

For sale: 50 Google +1 clicks, $19.99 or 250 Google +1?s for $69.99, or 2,000 for $359.99 (currently unavailable due to high demand!), all from phone verified Google real people (no bots!) from different IPs, drip-fed over a couple of days. Totally untraceable!

Yes, this is the pitch from an actual spammy website, Plussem.com, looking to manipulate the influence of Google +1 clicks in favor of websites that buy this service. Essentially, it is telling website owners that you can show Google your site isn?t spammy by buying their spam service, and get rewarded with higher search rankings.

B]Read more...[/B]

 

[bigcat1967]

Search Engine Watch contacted Google engineer Matt Cutts, head of the web spam team, but he dodged answering any questions, instead referring us to the Google Press department. Our questions remain unanswered.

I loved that part of the article.

However, and I'm not trying to bash Matt Cutts - but has he ever done any type of SEO besides his blog? Every time I hear Matt Cutts - it's like, "Well - you can't do this but you can do that". Sure, he knows organic search, but he doesn't have any experience of social networking (or paid search that I know of) and knows what it does.

With him ducking those questions, I really think the man has limited knowledge of this field. I could be wrong and everyone will disagree w/ me - but just my 2 cents.