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Rap Genius is Back on Google

news.rapgenius.com

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Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#181

Post by mathewsimonton »

The SEO strats / growth hacks weren't entirely misguided. Rap Genius just didn't perfect their activity and didn't let it exist entirely behind closed doors. If Rap Genius wanted to risk it and engage in blackhat-like activity, it should have at least kept things more quiet and less spammy. Rap Genius should have kept the finer details, at least, to a phone call with the blogger.

Google can't see a local business handing their customers/client a $25 gift certificate in-person for a random positive Google+ review. Along the same thread, Google would also not be able to see Rap Genius flying out a community outreach rep to meet with a prolific music blogger at a bar to go over an exchange for a positive mention and authoritative link. Just saying.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#182

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#183

Post by robryan »

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #46
grimlck wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In life there is always a bias. When that bias is against you, you should learn how to fight back. This is the PERFECT time for anyone who has done penance and is still being blacklisted by Google to document it all and go to the press. There are A LOT of people/journalists waiting to jump on a story that shows Google has double standards. But first they must be willing to do their part by documenting these facts and…

What about the other thousands of people that are likely waiting on their request?

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#184

Post by joelrunyon »

FreakLegion wrote: post #173
joelrunyon wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All that to say: it's not clear to me that RG really sucks less for "[song name] lyrics" queries. 1000x this. I think Rap Genius is great for "song meaning" queries, but their interface is just as distracting (if not more) than other lyric sites that "suck."

Actually I'd be surprised if Rap Genius is any good for "song meaning" queries. Will it give you information? Probably. Will that information be accurate? I'm skeptical. I've done a few spot checks on Poetry Genius, at least, and the annotations have consistently been either wrong or irrelevant, even for works that are well documented (e.g. The Waste Land ). My guess would be that if Rap Genius users aren't getting i…

They have verified artists program (http://rapgenius.com/verified-artists) where artists pop into explain the lyrics themselves. It might not be perfect, but there are only so many players in the "song meaning" arena & I bet RG is pretty high up there.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#185

Post by davemel37 »

I think it will take time for them to regain their rankings for non-branded keywords.

I just searched for justin Bieber lyrics and they are sitting in middle of page 3 on google.

They are ranking for branded searches, but not money keywords.

Although long term, I see this being a net positive for them due to the thousands of backlinks they got from all the press around this story.

I see it taking them several months to regain rankings...especially if the links they disavowed were artificially propping them up.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#187

Post by dreamfactory2 »

nknighthb wrote: post #179
dreamfactory wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't talking about anyone outside google, just critiquing the game being rigged internally, but it's maybe interesting you brought that in. On the one hand that could be criticised as an illusion of choice in the market (behind the curtain there is often ownership across entire industry sectors, regardless of 'competitors' within a sector). On the other, governments quite correctly get a say in any case (what do…

> has become part of our infrastructure I think a comment[1] I wrote a couple months ago about Facebook is relevant here. Infrastructure is what services are built on. It's a prerequisite, not the end result, and its absence is extremely costly. Google is not infrastructure[2]. Like Facebook, it could disappear tomorrow, and we'd all just switch to other search engines. I assume Bing would immediately pick up most of…

I think what google provide has become societal infrastructure, particularly wrt their monopoly position. That someone else would take their place (however badly executed) is evidence of that. We use it for studying, planning journeys, shopping, finding news, converting measures etc etc. In the process it's taken a position of political and economic importance. It makes a difference to us if google suppresses or boosts certain information and can influence our electorate during an election (e.g. many countries ban publication of exit polls); it affects the courts if certain information is made easily available (e.g. can prejudice trials); economic data and editorial affects the financial markets - and so on. If one player dominates this sphere, it is problematic - indeed it's why there are limits on media ownership. That's nothing to do with a demand for mediocrity but a demand for diversity, which is already well established. And yes companies very much need to conform to the countries they want to do business in - that's a good thing for the citizens of those countries.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#188

Post by nknighthb »

dreamfactory2 wrote: post #187
nknighthb wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> has become part of our infrastructure I think a comment[1] I wrote a couple months ago about Facebook is relevant here. Infrastructure is what services are built on. It's a prerequisite, not the end result, and its absence is extremely costly. Google is not infrastructure[2]. Like Facebook, it could disappear tomorrow, and we'd all just switch to other search engines. I assume Bing would immediately pick up most of…

I think what google provide has become societal infrastructure, particularly wrt their monopoly position. That someone else would take their place (however badly executed) is evidence of that. We use it for studying, planning journeys, shopping, finding news, converting measures etc etc. In the process it's taken a position of political and economic importance. It makes a difference to us if google suppresses or boos…

This is what I just heard you say: Regulation is needed because people might exercise free expression.

Do you have any idea how evil that sounds? If that is the argument, this is my answer: I will take up arms and die fighting to prevent the realization of such a goal.

Media ownership limits are justified only because of a resource scarcity. They do not apply to Internet publications, and with search engines, all I have to do is type in a different domain name. There's no spectrum to be monopolized.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#189

Post by JohnTHaller »

blauwbilgorgel wrote: post #166
JohnTHaller wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was not greyhat. This was blackhat. Paying money for inbound links on keywords that trasnfer page rank (don't include NOFOLLOW) has been blackhat for a LONG time.

It was Panama hat. Rap Genius did not pay money, they offered a tweet. In a crude and obvious enough way to be a little scheme-y. Which unfortunately for RG was picked up in the media. "even I was scratching my head to figure out if this was actually a Google violation or not. Rap Genius’s apology post had the company deciding itself that maybe it violated guidelines that links should be “editorially placed." - Danny…

Paying with a Tweet from an account with a large number of followers (which definitely has value) instead of money is still paying. At best, it's basically a link exchange, which is also not allowed.

Re: Rap Genius is Back on Google

#190

Post by acchow »

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…

> 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.

Google wants its results to be the most relevant, not contain the best cheaters. Allowing cheating would set a bad precedent eventually leading to deterioration of search quality.

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