Google/BMW haha

[Bionic]

The Times
This story made me laugh

[Sammy aff]

LOL
I like this bit, note the 'claiming to be'
The BMW action was revealed when Matt Cutts, a blogger claiming to be a Google software engineer, wrote that the company appeared to have used underhand practices to ensure that searches for BMW and "gebrauchtwagen" — used cars — would return the carmaker’s website first.

BMW get banned in germany, but not in china lol
http://www.google.com/search?hl=zh-C...C%E7%B4%A2&lr=

[Frostie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4685750.stm

Have to laugh

Only the german site is affected, so presume its only the German version of google too.
http://www.bmw.co.uk (PR6)
http://www.bmw.com (PR7)
http://www.bmw.de (PR0)

[TD Nick]

Hi all,

BMW / Google explanation

Google DE results for "www.bmw.de"

Overall, I think Google has been too eager to remove BMW (I suspect a competitor reported them) and I know a lot of flash sites which use user-agent cloaking and don't get penalised.

I haven't seen the doorway pages, but suspect BMW's "SEO agency" has overstepped the line in terms of optimising for "used cars", which I doubt a car manufacturer would be pushing as a product...

BMW will be fine once they remove the doorway pages - they have had their PR zero'd but it's not greyed out so they will bounce back in a month or two.

Some companies must be included in the Google index - how can the German index show no results for a user query trying to find Bmw.de as it makes for a really bad user experience.

Thanks

Nick

[Brendon]

>> I think Google has been too eager to remove BMW

Not at all. If they are going to apply the spam guidelines at all, they have to be applied fairly. If some smalltime webmaster got caught doing what BMW were doing, they'd be dumped, and rightly so.

>> they will bounce back in a month or two
>> how can the German index show no results for a user query trying to find Bmw.de as it makes for a really bad user experience.

In deference to BMWs brand and size, I would imagine they'll get put straight back in, as soon as they 'fess up, and finger the culprit...

[Qui Gon Jinn]

So does that mean BMW should get special dispensation because they are quote .. BMW .. unquote ... Whereby sometimes publishers with decent sites might get penalised because some over zealous fellow publisher has a buddy-buddy contact within Google so you're hand edited out.

[KirstyM]

I'd *hate* to be in the SEO's shoes right now. At the end of the day you should never apply anything even slightly dodgy to the site of such a large brand.

Also, I'd like to point out that if you can see other sites applying a technique that is known to be dubious in Google successfully that does not mean that you won't get a search engine death penalty for doing same!

[Fraser]

I think France might be gone soon too

http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/archive...2/06/wwwbmwfr/

[Qui Gon Jinn]

Opportunism already at work... RE Adwords

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...G=Search&meta=

[Brendon]

>> So does that mean BMW should get special dispensation because they are quote .. BMW .. unquote

Yes.... to the extent that when / if they clean up, they'll get back in very quickly, more quickly than a small time site would. This is justified, IMO, as users would expect BMW to be there in the results. As long as they are complying with SE guidelines, it is reasonable for them to get slightly better treatment.

On the flip side, they got panned pretty quickly too, and their naughtyness splashed all over the web, including the BBC.... that too, is fair

[Paul Wright]

Alternative uses for the banned domain?

Break My Website
Beat My Webmaster