The brain trust at V7N is was having a discussion about why Google doesn’t sponsor this SEO contest and V7N ambassodor Michael Allison posted this:
Google will learn a lot from this. They are nothing, if not astute.
and
I wondered why google didn’t post a big prize and let the gloves come off so they could study every aspect of it. Then it occurred to me that they could study this one and stay well away from any controversy.
Anybody in the room that thinks for 2 seconds that Google will learn anthing at all from a buncha link whores fighting over a gibberish phrase for the next 120 days please stand up so I can throw goldfish crackers at you.
Marc P
January 17th, 2006 at 7:39 amand I’ll supply the crackers.
John Scott
January 17th, 2006 at 10:34 amLOL! I love it. I know you are legally obligated to be ornery, but we all know that the contest is for entertainment purposes only as far as Google is concerned.
Now, I think the Naysayers Collective should have an emergency meeting to get your stories straight. Half of you guys are saying that it’s uber dangerous to participate in the contest because Google will learn the Dark Arts of the SEO (LOL), and the other half is saying Google will learn absolutely nothing (which is in fact correct).
We do see that the contest has got a lot of webmasters involved who are new to SEO, and they’ll learning, and that’s exactly what we hoped to achieve.
Anyway, might want to have a conference there and get your party line figured out.
Cheers
Aaron Pratt
January 17th, 2006 at 11:00 amVery fresh looking wordpress theme in here, kind of reminds me of: http://jarkolicious.com/wordpress/themes/trisexuality/
What was the subject?
-=Aaron
oilman
January 17th, 2006 at 11:01 am>> I know you are legally obligated to be ornery
yep – it’s on my driver’s license right under where is says I wear glasses
>>Half of you guys are saying that it’s uber dangerous to participate in the contest because Google will learn the Dark Arts of the SEO
who said that? They’re officially out of the party if that’s the case and we’ll keep their union dues.
[oilman reaches for a new box of gold fish crackers]
John Scott
January 17th, 2006 at 11:58 amDude, put the fish crackers away.
Your boy Stuntdubl. He broke out a haiku on my competition.
So, you know, I had to, um, do something about it.
http://www.v7n.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23890
Are you going to put one of those lists on here saying which html code I can use?
Firecracker
January 17th, 2006 at 2:18 pmJohn Scott’s posts make me sleepy.
randfish
January 17th, 2006 at 3:50 pmJohn, except for them sharing a first name (and knowing who the other is), I don’t think there’s any connection between Todd (Stuntdubl) and Todd (Oilman).
As for Google not learning anything… Todd (Oilman) – I think you’re giving them either way too much credit (that they already know about and discount the tactics people will employ) or way too litte credit (that they won’t bother to take a cursory look at the systems people are using).
I think they will learn something, even if it’s just a few new link networks to discount.
oilman
January 17th, 2006 at 4:53 pm>> even if it’s just a few new link networks to discount.
I honestly believe that’s about the most they could learn. I simply can’t believe that anybody is unleashing the real dark arts to rank for a gibberish term. It’s just not necessary.
WilliamC
January 20th, 2006 at 11:41 pmI would agree about them using this opportunity to find as many link sites as they can. They would be stupid not to. More than a few people are handing them to google on a platter from what I have seen of the contest entries so far.
Todd, stop by more often man.
Mike
January 22nd, 2006 at 3:09 amMaybe you guys should have a look thru the results pages before making statements like these. There are some very creative tactics being used if you look closely. And btw, sucking up to Matt Cutts is not the same as “being in with Google” or rather being able to make a statement about what Google thinks and does.
BTW how are things on seo angels? :p
dazzlindonna
January 22nd, 2006 at 10:03 amGotta agree with you, oilman, I seriously doubt Google will learn anything significant from this contest. Ok, maybe they’ll find some nefarious link networks, but they most likely already know about most of them already. Do I think Google is all-seeing and all-knowing? Nah, but they aren’t stupid either. I’m not in the least worried about what Google might figure out from this contest. Do I have an entry? Sure, but I both don’t expect to win, or care if I do. I mainly wanted to post a funny blog entry and this was the perfect opportunity to do it. I also have one little idea that I wanted to test, and this was also a perfect opportunity to do so. However, that little idea isn’t anything that Google would care about, so regardless of how it turns out, I am not risking anything. I think it’s silly for people to worry about exposing tactics. Unless they are using something totally new and innovative…and I can’t imagine why they would do so for this contest.
v7ndotcom elursrebmem » v7ndotcom elursrebmem Article by Jennifer Laycock
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:15 pm[...] The interesting thing isn’t that V7N sparked the contest, it’s that some SEOs shot back at V7N , claiming that the contest was nothing more than a cheap shot at building a ton of incoming links. In fact, well-know SEOs Greg Boser, Todd Friesian and Mike Grehan have put together their own pot and their own set of rules. 1. Place a link to the non-www version of Matt’s blog (http://mattcutts.com/blog). [...]