NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> Search Engine Abuse
ONLINE-ADS>> Search Engine Abuse
Amy Strycula (shop_at_coolshopping.com)
Fri, 15 Aug 1997 13:47:58 -0400
Iíve been a lurker on this list for eons, and
I came across something today that I found
so outrageous that I had to bring it up.
A little over two weeks ago we launched a
new shopping site, coolshopping.com
http://www.coolshopping.com
Our directory and search engine submissions
we also done a little over two weeks ago. Weíve
been monitoring the search engines and directories
closely to ensure that our listings eventually
appear (and are growing old doing so :-) ).
Because the time since submission and the launch
of site has been so short, Iím very aware of
exactly how many references to our site are
returned from each of the various search engines.
(FYI, Weíve had some great media coverage
and exposure so our traffic is growing quickly to
thousands per day despite the search engine listings!)
Today I did my typical search on one of the popular
search engines and to my pleasure that was one
more link present than there was yesterday. However,
when I identified and clicked on the link, I was taken
to a page that had nothing on it but a clickable
banner for a very well known online retailer.
Hmmm, I wondered, why did this page pop
up when I searched on ëcoolshoppingí, which
is a very distinct and fairly non-existent
combination of words? I saved off the page and
was totally stunned to find that the page was
a 104KB document, literally 50+ pages when
I opened it up in Microsoft word!
The body text was set at white, so none of the
text appeared. The page consisted of literally
hundreds and hundreds of HTML links to
every imaginable shopping site, mall, etc.
In fact, I believe many of the sections were
literally copied right from the Yahoo categories,
because the Yahoo categories were still
present as well. The links contained the
URL, name and description as would be
typical in Yahoo.
Also, the links were not only shopping related
but also Yahoo categories for computers,
real estate, apparel, ISPs, jokes, jewelery, marketing,
travel, get rich quick, business opportunities,
shareware, Microsoft Windows, and food.
Pretty popular topics to say the least. So, anyone
searching on anything remotely related to those
topics, or any business name among those links
(which included pretty much any shopping site
that exists), would hit this.
OK, Iíve vented. Another example of abuse
of the system. Iím sure you all can appreciate
how frustrating something like this is! Weíre
working very hard to build traffic honestly
and individuals such as these step on
everyone elseís hard work and efforts.
I should note that this page did not appear
under the domain of the business the page
was linking to.
I almost hate to mention this because this
gives others who may be similarly as
devious ideas. I know the search engines
are becoming more intelligent to situations
like this, but I donít see how they could
catch this case since the text within the body
tag itself was set to white!
I also have one separate question ñ can anyone
provide some sense as to the percentage of
sites who offer banner advertising on a flat
rate basis as opposed to impressions ñ how
common or uncommon is this, and what effect
does this have on decision making process
for media buyers? At coolshopping.com,
weíre using a flat rate/per month model for our initial
months and are interested in feedback on that topic.
Amy Strycula, Creative Director
coolshopping.com----------------
http://www.coolshopping.com
The ultimate source for ultra-cool shopping sites
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