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Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

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Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#51
post #41
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a really good point. Every few months I try to adapt to using DDG as my primary search, but I always find myself throwing a !g into my searches, which kind of defeats the purpose. I'm curious, for what kind of searches do you find DDG's own search results to be good enough (or better) than Google's? What kind of searches make you bang to Google?

I generally use !g if I want local results (say, looking for a restaurant) or I use !m if I want a map (which is really the same thing as local for me). I also use Google if I know my particular search is going to be obscure and/or noisy. For instance, weird error messages get a !g. The other major exception is that Google Scholar is incomparable for finding academic papers on a particular topic. However, for everyth…

About the same as me! I generally do DDG first unless I know I want a map, or I'm searching for error messages. Other commands I use fairly frequently are

!yt (youtube) !gmail !news !gg (google groups) !hn !boingboing !torrent !itunes !rubydoc !rubygems !codex !so (stack) !am (amazon) !jstor (and a few other specific academic journal searches, but you can also use !googlescholar) !flickr

and probably a few others! I encourage everyone to check out the list and get it into their workflow. With Alfred + DDG I can get to most things much quicker than I could through google

https://duckduckgo.com/bang.html

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#52
post #31

So, the best lyric site by a mile no longer shows up in ordinary Google lyric searches. As a music fanatic, searching lyrics is something I do all day long every day, by the way - and when I search lyrics in Google, I really want to go to rap genius. Anyway, supposedly this degradation of Google had to happen to make a public example, and most of us are ok with it because the founders of RG are known to be kind of je…

You should try Bing for lyrics search. I've already made it the default engine on my phone.

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#53
post #13

We are working with Google right now to resolve this. They’ve been really great, helping us identify changes we need to make. As if they don't know what they did. These guys are toxic. I'd ban them for a year.

Seems toxic to lay such claims without getting to know someone personally. Have they done you wrong?

Perhaps you are uninterested in rap music, perhaps you believe in staunch professionalism, but at least have respect for an individual's choice to live to their life as they please. Success isn't truly success unless you do it while being yourself.

There is a reason you don't have the power to ban them for a year. Rap Genius was built with love - a reflection of the founders - and is a vastly superior product. If you had ever used it, you would clearly see that. You are blinded by hate my friend.

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#54
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever heard of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, etc.? Google just does it better than anyone else at the moment. Now I'm not saying Google doesn't have a de facto monopoly, but I'm wary of anyone who says a private company should be forced to split. Should they be punished for being the most popular?

Good thing google is public rather than private.

Do I need to explain how a publicly traded company is still private, or are you just being purposely obtuse?

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#55
post #32
post #13

We are working with Google right now to resolve this. They’ve been really great, helping us identify changes we need to make. As if they don't know what they did. These guys are toxic. I'd ban them for a year.

Give them the credit for trying to resolve a problem. Are you telling me if you run a business you would never this kind of mistake? It is a good idea to explain why they did it and what they were thinking, instead of just say "damn I screwed up." I rather hear people explain to me why they did it and they now think they screw up. It is part of resolution. If you don't care about explanation (or excuse if you think t…

> Are you telling me if you run a business you would never this kind of mistake?

It's not that hard to, you know, not spam.

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#57
Google isn't the only way to access the internet. All this complaining of not being able to type "rap genius" in google to go to the site sounds real juvenile, doesn't even rise to first world problem status. Try typing rapgenius.com and using their search mechanism. These actions may stop some of their growth, but should not be a hinderance to anyone complaining here.

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want your results from rapgenius, that's why site:rapgenius.com exists.

Mmmm, we all love typing that.

Just add it as a custom search engine in the browser of your choice. In chrome you could just type:

rg justin bieber

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#59
post #31

So, the best lyric site by a mile no longer shows up in ordinary Google lyric searches. As a music fanatic, searching lyrics is something I do all day long every day, by the way - and when I search lyrics in Google, I really want to go to rap genius. Anyway, supposedly this degradation of Google had to happen to make a public example, and most of us are ok with it because the founders of RG are known to be kind of je…

The hate seems to be coming because they're "unprofessional", "disrespectful", "juvenile" and "arrogant" - like people in the hip hop industry haven't heard that before.

Don't listen to the haters. Stay on the grind.

Re: Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Result Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

#60
post #31

So, the best lyric site by a mile no longer shows up in ordinary Google lyric searches. As a music fanatic, searching lyrics is something I do all day long every day, by the way - and when I search lyrics in Google, I really want to go to rap genius. Anyway, supposedly this degradation of Google had to happen to make a public example, and most of us are ok with it because the founders of RG are known to be kind of je…

People build sites that are very good all the time, often 'the best site for X by a mile', but they don't make it to the top because of poor SEO or marketing. Just because they are a good product doesn't mean they get to the top. RapGenius should be no different.

And what about the majority of people who simply want their lyrics, instead of all those messy annotations? The other sites give me that and that's why they've been at the top for the past decade.

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