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Rap Genius is Back on Google

news.rapgenius.com

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Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#71

Post by jmduke »

programminggeek wrote: post #69

One thing I know is that RapGenius is good about making a big stink, being in the news, and then having things work out in their favor, even if they were the ones doing a dumb thing in the first place. They freaked out at Heroku with decent reason because it was costing them money, but if they ran their own infrastructure, that would have been a total non issue and at the scale they are running, why ARE they using He…

They freaked out at Heroku with decent reason because it was costing them money, but if they ran their own infrastructure, that would have been a total non issue and at the scale they are running, why ARE they using Heroku?

Are you arguing that what Heroku was doing wasn't wrong?

I'm not sure why this behavior hasn't put them in the same category as Zynga, Groupon, Swoopo, and all the other companies the tech industry loves to hate.

Comments on every single RapGenius post on HN have been filled with vitriol toward the founders, their attitude, and the culture they foster.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#72

Post by PavlovsCat »

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #32

I do not understand why people are offended that they came back quickly AFTER doing a bit of penance. Should their investors not have made calls? However, it should be noted that they did their part. One of my favorite quotes is this: "To save a drowning man, he must first give you his hand" If the Rap Genius guys were incompetent and did not do their part in removing the links so quickly (see main story for technica…

Off-topic, but

> "To save a drowning man, he must first give you his hand"

is very wrong from anything I ever read about the topic. Drowning leads to involuntary reactions that cannot be controlled, like trying to climb on the person trying to save you, endangering them as well. That's why approaching and grabbing a drowning person from behind is suggested, and maybe even knocking them out if need be. (unless you can throw them a lifesaver or something else they can grab safely, of course)

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#73

Post by sbreaking6 »

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #32

I do not understand why people are offended that they came back quickly AFTER doing a bit of penance. Should their investors not have made calls? However, it should be noted that they did their part. One of my favorite quotes is this: "To save a drowning man, he must first give you his hand" If the Rap Genius guys were incompetent and did not do their part in removing the links so quickly (see main story for technica…

Ehh, the story is the double standard google is showcasing. The earlier story about Expedia and this outcome tell it well.

This is rapgenius. If it had to cross the line why on something so materially insignificant.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#75

Post by blauwbilgorgel »

mtrimpe wrote: post #62
nemesisj wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Everything about how Google handled this is wrong, in my opinion. I couldn't care less about RapGenius - they're just a symptom of the underlying problem which is we don't have any real competition in the search engine market, and we're paying for it with unfair antics like this. Longer thoughts here: http://peebs.org/2014/01/04/we-need-viable-search-engine-com...

Very much so. Google's decisions are starting to have impacts on other companies' bottom lines which easily run into the millions of dollars. Just as a thought experiment ... how tempting do you think it would be for Google to do the following: 1) Run a query to identify all companies that cut their AdWords spending over 50% over the last year. 2) Look at which of these companies are now getting significant numbers o…

>Apart from evidence that seems to be pointing towards this already happening;

Please provide this evidence. I am getting a bit tired of this misinformation. Organic search and paid search are silo'd. To say that Google favors advertisers in the organic results or the other way round, is simply not true. It would destroy Google's credibility.

>how tempting do you think it would be for Google

It approaches conspiracy thinking. I love that, but I think HN is not the place. You are basically accusing a company of a very evil act, without proper evidence. Do you realize that many Googlers frequent this site? It would be a shame if all they get to read are conspiracy theories and baseless accusations.

>Especially when considering that the rules are so vague that almost every site is guaranteed to break some

Hogwash. Their rules are very clear and succinct.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en

Maybe if you want to spam or manipulate, then these rules are vague. Maybe when you don't read the guidelines then they are vague. I bet that if you can point to a rule that almost every site breaks, without them knowing, then Google will adjust that rule to be more clear.

You can not please them all.

>Penalize them using a generic message and refuse on principle to answer any inquiries as to why.

You can certainly not please the spammers that were caught with their hands in the cookie jar and then take to the internet to say that Google is unfair, and that the big brands get away with anything.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#77

Post by friscobob »

God this pisses me off to no end. So my site is targeted by negative SEO. (Yeah, I know, I know, negative SEO doesn't exist. Fuck off.) So who do I call? I've been penalized for months and there is nothing I can do about it. Nobody can help. But these fuckers are able to make a call and recover from a SELF INFLICTED wound in less than a week. I am being targeted by crap that is COMPLETELY OUT OF MY CONTROL and it's tough luck little buddy. The double standard here is fucking sickening.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#78

Post by woah »

blauwbilgorgel wrote: post #75
mtrimpe wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very much so. Google's decisions are starting to have impacts on other companies' bottom lines which easily run into the millions of dollars. Just as a thought experiment ... how tempting do you think it would be for Google to do the following: 1) Run a query to identify all companies that cut their AdWords spending over 50% over the last year. 2) Look at which of these companies are now getting significant numbers o…

>Apart from evidence that seems to be pointing towards this already happening; Please provide this evidence. I am getting a bit tired of this misinformation. Organic search and paid search are silo'd. To say that Google favors advertisers in the organic results or the other way round, is simply not true. It would destroy Google's credibility. >how tempting do you think it would be for Google It approaches conspiracy…

In other words- "They just wouldn't!"

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#79

Post by blauwbilgorgel »

001sky wrote: post #43
OoTheNigerian wrote: post #32

I do not understand why people are offended that they came back quickly AFTER doing a bit of penance. Should their investors not have made calls? However, it should be noted that they did their part. One of my favorite quotes is this: "To save a drowning man, he must first give you his hand" If the Rap Genius guys were incompetent and did not do their part in removing the links so quickly (see main story for technica…

BTW, it also helped that people really found Rap Genius useful. Er, what? You suggesting that Google execs are benchmarking the productivity of google searches? There are a million other "substitutes"...hence the shady SEO...

Google is constantly improving the search results. If factors, such as a low bounce rate and high dwell time, show that a site is popular and useful, why not rank it higher?

People tend to think in binary: A site is either spam or no spam. But spam is much more complex. A site can be 90% good and 10% bad. A site can turn spammy without their intention: comment spam, hacked sites. A site can pull out all the stops to hide their link buying. A site can be useful to have in index, regardless of some spammy behavior.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#80

Post by auganov »

grimlck wrote: post #39
OoTheNigerian wrote: post #32

I do not understand why people are offended that they came back quickly AFTER doing a bit of penance. Should their investors not have made calls? However, it should be noted that they did their part. One of my favorite quotes is this: "To save a drowning man, he must first give you his hand" If the Rap Genius guys were incompetent and did not do their part in removing the links so quickly (see main story for technica…

Because it is a double standard. There are thousands of sites which get blacklisted by Google. I'm sure all of them fix their errors really quickly once they realize they are on the black list. And none of them get back on Google nearly as quickly as rap genius did. If Google applied these rules consistently with all websites, I would have no problem with it, but they don't. This breaks the myth that Silicon Valley i…

Is it so inherently wrong to prioritize a high-profile case of a popular site? Merit is not a synonym for equality. From a user perspective that decision might surely have a lot of merit.
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