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Rap Genius is Back on Google

news.rapgenius.com

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Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#121

Post by nostromo »

sheetjs wrote: post #104
JohnTHaller wrote: post #95

Honestly, this is just saddening. Google needs to have a consistent policy towards these blackhat SEO offenders and enforce it for everyone. RapGenius bought backlinks to artificially inflate their pagerank. They knew they were cheating but they did it anyway. They got caught. And they were hit with a manual action on Google. Sounds good so far. But that's where it stops. RapGenius, using the connections they have fr…

Google is a business, and there is a very good chance that they financially benefit from Rap Genius being restored. Other companies that suffer don't have that financial link, and maybe the best course is for them to raise VC funds (and posture themselves so that Google stands to lose if they penalize) I agree with you in theory, but in practice it sounds like you expect google to act as if they care about things lik…

I very much doubt Rap Genius' delisting hurt Google.

RG is in a commodity industry. Lyrics are lyrics are lyrics no matter where you get them.

Yes, RG is better than most other providers. However, I suspect that the number of Google users that actually care about their differentiation (like annotations) is vanishingly small.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#123

Post by skrebbel »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #95

Honestly, this is just saddening. Google needs to have a consistent policy towards these blackhat SEO offenders and enforce it for everyone. RapGenius bought backlinks to artificially inflate their pagerank. They knew they were cheating but they did it anyway. They got caught. And they were hit with a manual action on Google. Sounds good so far. But that's where it stops. RapGenius, using the connections they have fr…

You're forgetting something.

As a search engine user, I don't care whether the search engine firm is "fair", whether their rules apply equally to everyone or not. It's not a country, it's a search engine.

You can say what you want about Rap Genius, but they're just about the only lyrics site that doesn't suck. As a searcher, I want to get to sites that don't suck. In the case of lyrics, that's Rap Genius.

Google has an interest to show me the best results. How they determine those results, and how much of that process is manual, is up to them. It's nice that they decided that penalties and virtual spankings are a good thing in the long run, and it's lovely that you think that they're too inconsistent and unfair about it, but I'm a user. I don't care. I just want the best results.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#124

Post by notastartup »

Certainly a double standard exists at Google. I originally thought finally Google is taking a firm stance, but this reversal only does harm to Google's image imho. Take home message is, blackhat SEO is forgiven if you are funded by connected people. Don't have funding or connections but make the slightest infraction in SEO? Feel the google girth.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#125

Post by throwawaykf03 »

jonknee wrote: post #112
ryanmerket wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much revenue do you think RapGenius brings Google? Even if it was $10M/qtr that is a drop in the bucket for Google.

RapGenius brings Google $0 in revenue. RapGenius brings in $0 in revenue for anyone--it's not monetized.

Another way to look at it is: If X is a really good website in its category, and Google consistently puts X above other websites in search results for that category, the user experience on Google is better with X than without X. This will lead to more users using Google more, and contribute to all the effects that make Google money.

So even if Rap Genius is not bringing revenue to Google, Google certainly can derive value from Rap Genius that contributes to revenue. However, since the effects are indirect, it's not easy (though not impossible) to put a monetary value on this relationship.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#126

Post by unbeli »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #95

Honestly, this is just saddening. Google needs to have a consistent policy towards these blackhat SEO offenders and enforce it for everyone. RapGenius bought backlinks to artificially inflate their pagerank. They knew they were cheating but they did it anyway. They got caught. And they were hit with a manual action on Google. Sounds good so far. But that's where it stops. RapGenius, using the connections they have fr…

Read the article.

They are back because they did a lot of work finding all these bad links and using Google’s disavowal tool to kill them, not because of their VC funding or whatever other influence you think they have on Google.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#127

Post by scrrr »

skrebbel wrote: post #123
JohnTHaller wrote: post #95

Honestly, this is just saddening. Google needs to have a consistent policy towards these blackhat SEO offenders and enforce it for everyone. RapGenius bought backlinks to artificially inflate their pagerank. They knew they were cheating but they did it anyway. They got caught. And they were hit with a manual action on Google. Sounds good so far. But that's where it stops. RapGenius, using the connections they have fr…

You're forgetting something. As a search engine user, I don't care whether the search engine firm is "fair", whether their rules apply equally to everyone or not. It's not a country, it's a search engine. You can say what you want about Rap Genius, but they're just about the only lyrics site that doesn't suck. As a searcher, I want to get to sites that don't suck. In the case of lyrics, that's Rap Genius. Google has…

I own many old Vinyl records and often they come with the lyrics for all the songs on them. That's enough for me. I don't need funny annotations.

So, while Rap Genius is a cool website, I wouldn't say that all the other lyrics websites suck.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#128

Post by bushido »

argonaut wrote: post #108
bushido wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you know this is the case? I don't. I also don't know if this is not the case. Do you? This uncertainty IS the reason for the current loss of faith. > Matt Cutts said they've relisted them quickly because AH slipped Google some cash? I never said cash exchanged hands. I doubt it did. Can you with a 100% surety say that a special favor of any kind did not occur? > Maybe RapGenius followed their cleanup policy…

At the point where you start suggesting that Matt Cutts was bribed [or accepted a favor], you know you've left the land of rationality and entered into wholesale speculation. Your argument is on the face ridiculous, but just to be clear: 1) Matt Cutts is very wealthy and doesn't need any favors. 2) Matt Cutts once penalized Google's own Chome site for improper links. If there were ever any conflict of interest that e…

> At the point where you start suggesting that Matt Cutts was bribed

When did I do that?

I have not and am not suggesting that Matt Cutts or anyone at Google took a bribe of any kind whatsoever.

I have on the other hand said that there is some uncertainty if favors may have been given/used to expedite the process of re-listing.

Which if true, in itself looks really bad, simply because of the position of authority Google sits at.

Pray tell, when did a favor for a friend, acquaintance or anyone for that matter, regardless of their alleged wealth or social standing come to be defined as bribery/monetary value exchanging hands?

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#129

Post by dpatrick86 »

skrebbel wrote: post #123
JohnTHaller wrote: post #95

Honestly, this is just saddening. Google needs to have a consistent policy towards these blackhat SEO offenders and enforce it for everyone. RapGenius bought backlinks to artificially inflate their pagerank. They knew they were cheating but they did it anyway. They got caught. And they were hit with a manual action on Google. Sounds good so far. But that's where it stops. RapGenius, using the connections they have fr…

You're forgetting something. As a search engine user, I don't care whether the search engine firm is "fair", whether their rules apply equally to everyone or not. It's not a country, it's a search engine. You can say what you want about Rap Genius, but they're just about the only lyrics site that doesn't suck. As a searcher, I want to get to sites that don't suck. In the case of lyrics, that's Rap Genius. Google has…

Even if the intent is actually enhance user experience, I think by making these decisions manually instead of algorithmically that a pretty reasonable assumption could be made of human bias inadvertently coming into play.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#130

Post by robbrown451 »

skrebbel wrote: post #123
JohnTHaller wrote: post #95

Honestly, this is just saddening. Google needs to have a consistent policy towards these blackhat SEO offenders and enforce it for everyone. RapGenius bought backlinks to artificially inflate their pagerank. They knew they were cheating but they did it anyway. They got caught. And they were hit with a manual action on Google. Sounds good so far. But that's where it stops. RapGenius, using the connections they have fr…

You're forgetting something. As a search engine user, I don't care whether the search engine firm is "fair", whether their rules apply equally to everyone or not. It's not a country, it's a search engine. You can say what you want about Rap Genius, but they're just about the only lyrics site that doesn't suck. As a searcher, I want to get to sites that don't suck. In the case of lyrics, that's Rap Genius. Google has…

That's great in the short term. In the long term, having consistent and harsh punishments (whether manual or algorithmic) for SEO cheaters is very much in the interest of Google's users, because it preserves the integrity of the search results.
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