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Last week, Google was forced to swallow some pride as it issued a penalty against Google Japan. We all know that Google is strongly against paid links, so it was surprising when Google Japan was recently found out for buying blog posts as part of a promotional campaign for a new service.
According to Google Blogoscoped, Akky Akimoto wrote on the Asiajin blog that Google Japan was paying bloggers to evaluate a new Google widget through a pay-per-post service called CyberBuzz.
Asiajin says, “These articles, which look almost the same as regular ones, have ‘ad’ tags which are very subtle, and will no doubt not be noticed by many readers.” The post also said, “So they are now link-building using monetary incentives to try to crook their own search results in a malicious way.” (Correction: I misinterpreted Akky Akimoto. The ‘ad’ tags are actually referring to article-type advertisements on the news website Gigazine.)
Google issued an apology that reads:
“Google Japan is running several promotional activities to let people know more about our products.
It turns out that using blogs on the part of the promotional activities violates Google’s search guidelines, so we have ended the promotion. We would like to apologize to the people concerned and to our users, and are making an effort to make our communications more transparent in order to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.”
Matt Cutts twittered “Google.co.jp PageRank is now ~5 instead of ~9. I expect that to remain for a while.” He expresses Google’s deep remorse and apologizes on the company’s behalf in this video.
Speaking on his own feelings, Matt says he was “mortified” when he heard about the incident. He goes on to say that Google’s position on paid links has not changed.
To correct the issue, Google is asking the bloggers to remove their paid posts. Matt also says Google realizes its need to continue to communicate and explain its position on paid links.
“This is something that we should have done better and I hope we will do better in the future.”
Keep watching WebProNews for the full interview with Matt Cutts including top security issues of this year and the latest on Google’s personalized search efforts.
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Have you more information about why they do that?
why the penalization against google japan ?
Really, Google have to set an example and that means that if one of their own companies are paying for links, then they should be penalised, just as any other website would ever.
Part of maturity is being able to appreciate, or at least tolerate, the success of others. ,
That information is so funny, google is a little bit crazy, but thanks for sharing with us.
New google algo is crazy
Goolge now penalise everything.
That is interesting. Maybe next time google.com will ban itself
This is nonsense.
Google probably set this up to say “We dislike link buying so much, we even penalize our own company for doing such”
Fact: There is not 1 website that ranks #1 for a highly competitive term that has not purchased links.
Some link buying should be allowed as opposed to others.
If I pay someone to write an honest review about my site on their blog, and they happen to link to my website in the process, how is that wrong?
That was really interesting indeed, thanks for posting this up!
Dinono.com
So what happened to the blogs that sold the links?
That’s quite interesting.
Google vs. Google. (America vs Japan, huh!?)
Pay-per-post is now viewed as a bad practice in Japan in general so I can see why marketing dept though it would be a brilliant idea not necessarily as a link building, but as a marketing campaign. They just didn’t know their own guidelines.
What people seem to miss is why should’nt people be paid for writing their opinions, it happens all the time in the real world press, why should Google dictate what the web should or should not be.
Man… a corporation with ethics, leading the pack…
I can’t figure out if it’s good. Or if it’s bad.
Hey, at least it isn’t microsoft.
I agree with SEOdiot. Better to give them the punishment in a same way as any other website or company that’s been caught doing similar things.
Google does not rely on PageRank to make their business. for god sake people know GOOGLE, so I suggest shutdown the google.jp for 3 months or donate the 3 months profit of google japan to Charity how is that!!
Google Japan gave another apology statement today (in Japanese),
http://googlejapan.blogspot.com/2009/02/googlecojp.html
And explained what kind of paid links are not acceptable for Google under the name of “Japan Search Quality Team with Matt Cutts” (again, in Japanese)
http://googlewebmastercentral-ja.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html
What Google should be apologizing for is inventing PageRank in the first place because PR has done horrible things to the web. For example, I have a web directory that charges a review fee, just like other directories such as BOTW, etc. The difference is that I organize mine personally, keeping it smaller and better quality. However, Google knocked my PR to zero and left all the other directories PR intact. Now webmasters avoid jtrotta.com – it’s a well-organized directory of quality sites but it has no PR. If Google got rid of PR entirely, the web would be a better place. For one thing, people would judge my directory on its actual quality.
I think this can happen to any site that does some form of bad paid linking to a bad neighborhood(maybe)
I’ll stick to the old reliable snail way of link building in the Dallas Vinyl Siding world.
Lets look at the Bigger Picture. Doesnt it show Good Faith from Google to penalize their own for violating one of their own rules. I think it speaks highly of Google. Its the people behind Google Japan who should face the heat.
Cheers.
HA HA HA
since my site only has 95 links and is building about 30 a month – I’ll never catch up to my competitor that has 100,000 – undoubghtable some paid written links – howthe heck couldthey get 15 links daily for 7 years ? when all I see posted is 2 a day …hes a pr 6 and I am a zero….
Is it any surprise? Really? If you are making all the rules and the rule book then I am sure that you know every backhanded trick out there.
Wouldn’t this be like a bad cop knowing that the dope he just picked up off a drug dealer is going to make him a lot more money this month then his salary? Yes, its wrong, and it bugs all those that are trying to play by the rules, but seriously. Can we expect any less? Just curious, but does this mean that Google-Japan gets put into the sandbox for a year?
No, because ultimately they control everything. I know pest control but google is one pest I can’t control. Are they corrupt? Not sure. How would you judge this? Are they bias? Maybe. They are a money making company and they will do what they need to do to survive. This isn’t nobility, government, charity, or war. It’s business.
Excellent example of how Google and their sisters or brothers not knowing what each other is doing. Drop their PR from a 9 to a 5 – big deal. Do a hand edit and remove them from the SERP’s like Matt would any other site.
Sorry, but I think this “penalty” is just a bad joke of Google. Just as previous posters already mentioned: when any “normal” company hires an agency who uses paid links and the company does not know about this due to lack of control or whatever – is this company just punished with a PR decrease? No. There is a strong suspicion that especially in Germany there was recently an issue with such an SEO agency which used paid links from Russia for German customers without informing them about using this technique. And consequently, both the agency and some of its customers got penalized with the famous “-40 to 60 position penalty”. With the effect that these businesses see an according breakdown after loosing all their top positions. Even when they didn’t know about this agency’s techniques. So they were exactly as “unguilty” as google.jp.
And this is where I must start laughing: Google Japan got “penalized” in a way that won’t hurt them in any way. Of course the issue is embarassing, but their business won’t be touched at all by this simple PR-decrease. Google’s business does not depend on search engine positions. You don’t search for Google. You USE Google to find other businesses. But you won’t find such “accidentally” penalized businesses. Because they’re gone from the top positions and loosing large revenues now.
But the best thing is: even when they immediately started investigating what happened and found out that this agency was doing “forbidden” things, stopped the contract immediately, demanded and supervised the deletion of these paid links and started a reconsideration request within only 7 business days (I was involved in such a case – we did only on-page optimization whereas the mentioned agency was responsible for all external link building): they won’t get out of this penalty for weeks or months. Simply because that’s Google’s rule: you have been naughty, so you deserve the penalty and we won’t let you out of it before we think it’s ok, even when you swear the Unbreakable Vow that you severely repent having done anything wrong and made the best of efforts to clean up everything. Which can take weeks or even months. Depending on whatever. Perhaps the weather forecast. Or the stock market.
Therefore I must seriously question this farcical PR-penalty of Google Japan. They clearly broke the rules, they have been caught – so I demand them to be punished in the same way as any other website or company that’s been caught doing similar things. Take them away their business for 3 months or any arbitrary period of time, just like it is the case for any other rule-breaker. So I am very sorry Matt, because basically I really find you very sympathetic and I’d appreciate to have a coffee and a chat with you – but don’t just sit there, apologize with a smile in your face and let your Japanese department get away with such a laughable penalty. When a normal business breaks your rules and faces such a penalty, responsible heads can roll and the company can even get into severe financial problems, maybe even near bankruptcy. But Google Japan won’t, because as explained above: it’s Google, not a normal company. So they are immune to any “penalty” you do to them regarding Page Rank or positions and the only fair thing showing us that you’re really serious about penalties for rule-breakers would be to think about an accordingly harsh economical penalty for Google Japan. Not just a laughable PR-decrease.
But how should you implement that penalty? I don’t know. Perhaps the most honest way would be to do random redirects of 9 out of 10 requests for google.jp to yahoo.jp or any other leading search engine over there for the next three months. Or by not showing any AdWords ads for three months. Or something similiar. As long as it is something which has the same economical effect for Google Japan as it has for any “normal” company.
“If Google can’t penalise their own website for doing something like this then they couldn’t possibly justify penalising anyone else.”
Put this penalty is purely an aesthetic one that doesn’t change anything. PR doesn’t matter worth a damn unless you’re selling links. If this was a normal site, Google would have slapped it with a minus 60 penalty.
Absolutely! If Google can’t penalise their own website for doing something like this then they couldn’t possibly justify penalising anyone else.
Google have to set an example and that means that if one of their own companies are paying for links, then they should be penalised, just as any other website would.
Thank you for your quick fix Abby.
As the Gigazine’s ad articles are not with “CyberBuzz” note, it is possible that Google Japan bought them directly. (or possibly used other agent for it)
@ Akky Akimoto
I apologize for the misinterpretation! Check out the correction above and see if it is suitable. Thanks!
> “These articles, which look almost the same as regular ones, have ‘ad’ tags which are very subtle, and will no doubt not be noticed by many readers.”
Your paraphrasing on this is not right.
The first part is about CyberBuzz’s pay-per-post promotion, but the latter one, ‘ad’ tag story is about an article-style advertisement on the site Gigazine which might be directly bought (or at least different style by CyberBuzz) by Google Japan.
WHO CARES? what’s a few paid links in he sea of billions of bits of spam, and it only effects the Japanese anyway…what’s the problem
that was quiet shocking news.. i never been thought of that Google Gonna ban Google itself.. i mean Google japan… that means google is ver strict on its rules and regulations
Ouch!
It is so sensitive to slammed by google for one of it’s own company. Looks like someone under their own family doesn’t understand the rules properly.
Well, this could happen to anyone. I think it’s a great video interview by WPN and it’s cool to see Matt get real and be so open about the topics of the interview. Great job!