Comments on: Switching to Bing

By: Alex H.

Alex H. — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:06:09 +0000

Thanks, Sam, but I think that I am once again fit for G’s holy sight.

I guess this deserves a follow-up.

I’m now back in the results, perhaps due to the graces of a colleague who found herself in a similar place and did call upon a friend at Google. She had ended up in very much the same position I had.

I wrote about being blacklisted by the engine in my book, but it’s really different when it happens to you! I’m happy I’m back, because while it’s good to have Bing as an alternative, I generally prefer the results I get from Google.

– A

By: Sam Morales

Sam Morales — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:36:24 +0000

You know, I could get this fixed for you tomorrow if you’d like…

-Sam

By: alex

alex — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:20:25 +0000

Nope, it never did. The issue is that Google’s blacklisting is punitive. No one visiting my blog would have seen the spam either (which is why I didn’t notice it). The appropriate action by Google would have been to ignore it. Instead, they’ve blacklisted my blog, which although I don’t believe to be the most wonderful thing on the web, is nonetheless a resource for some people. So, they’ve harmed searchers and a content producer in a misguided attempt to punish me for having my wordpress install hacked.

And, to make matters worse, when I comply with their request, they don’t reinstate me in the index. They say they can’t be bothered with responding to individual appeals. In other words: you’re not our customer, advertisers are. I don’t blame them for not treating publishers well, but if users find themselves directed only toward things Google thinks is worthwhile, users might get the idea–correctly–that more is on offer at Bing. I’m no fan of Microsoft, but Google completely ignoring my blog bugs me. Only I should be allowed to do that!

By: David Brake

David Brake — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:10:30 +0000

… and what about Microsoft’s treatment of your blog? Did it even notice that your blog was hacked? It’s no excuse I know but I think Google outsources its blacklist to a third party which might explain why things are slow to update.

By: jason

jason — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:41:20 +0000

I had 5 blogs hacked. I fixed them right, and google removed the worry page in less than a few hours. I tried in the past, without doing it ‘right’ and the blacklist page didn’t go away. I did it right, and it did. Don’t know what that means, but they’re only complaining about something that is there, right?