New Article Looks at SEO "Gone Bad"

We just learned about a new article (I haven't had a chance to read it yet) from Mark Glaser at the Online Journalism Review that looks at search engine optimization "gone bad" (aka Black Hat). The article is titled: Companies subvert search results to squelch criticism.

It's not illegal, but it's SEO gone bad. Companies such as Quixtar are using Google-bombing, link farms and Web spam pages to place positive sites in the top search results -- which pushes the negative ones down.

The article includes comments from Danny. I'll leave it to him to comment.

From the article:

"I don't have any problem with search engine optimization, and businesses have every right to do it. But my complaint is that this is something that you don't want everybody to know about, because you know that it's deceitful, and it's not about providing value for people. It's not about providing a great information resource that will be the #1 site on the Web. It's about flooding the Web with crap, and in that sewage, [they're] going to bury everyone else. That's my main concern. The implications go across to other businesses like Scientology." -- Eric Janssen, proprietor of Quixtar Blog and online creative manager for the Memphis Commercial Appeal's site

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