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The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

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Re: The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

#11

Post by citizens »

allbombs wrote: post #6
citizens wrote: post #2

> "For the little story, Zlio, became blacklisted/sandboxed by Google 6 months after…. It killed the company…" This is only speculation, but it looks like zlio.com was sandboxed/blacklisted because of rampant spamming. 4 out of the top 5 referring domains are porn sites (about 150k links). Source: http://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/refdomains/subdomains/zlio.c...

took a quick look, aren't those backlinks to subdomains? No idea what the product/service does but it appears subdomains are the main spam links, not the root.. So perhaps they were duped by spammers creating subdomains

Yep, totally possible

Re: The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

#12

Post by OldSchool »

Of course I don't know what the terms were, but if you're in a position to decide to take on (more?) VC or sell to Google I'm inclined to say going with the latter is the better choice.

If you're a great visionary you'll have another chance not too far down the road to show the world again. If your good fortune hitched a ride with lady luck to some extent, then shamelessly cashing out your personal bubble is also a smart thing to do.

Re: The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

#13

Post by robryan »

allbombs wrote: post #6
citizens wrote: post #2

> "For the little story, Zlio, became blacklisted/sandboxed by Google 6 months after…. It killed the company…" This is only speculation, but it looks like zlio.com was sandboxed/blacklisted because of rampant spamming. 4 out of the top 5 referring domains are porn sites (about 150k links). Source: http://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/refdomains/subdomains/zlio.c...

took a quick look, aren't those backlinks to subdomains? No idea what the product/service does but it appears subdomains are the main spam links, not the root.. So perhaps they were duped by spammers creating subdomains

It is a create your own store product. People would have simply been making a store and then using software to spam their links everywhere. I think sub domains are usually treated as separate domains though?

Re: The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

#14

Post by robryan »

woodchuck64 wrote: post #8

Social eCommerce Site Zlio Joins the Deadpool: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/social-ecommerce-site-zlio-...

This is why I wouldn't touch SEO as a consultant. They ended up getting sued, despite little chance probably they could fix their issues without massive internal changes to the service. I guess the SEO company overpromised.

Re: The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

#16

Post by bennny »

imglorp wrote: post #9
jrockway wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how even when buying a company, people can't be bothered to use proper capitalization or even spell out the word "please". Wow. I must have slept through the English class where they told me this was OK.

I think it's a power thing because they're manoeuvring for negotiation. Translation: "I can't be bothered to spell because you're teensy and I have another $1B to spend today on companies 100x bigger than yours. Make with the paperwork chop chop." Then, confirmation: "Give me your mobile so I can call you any time I feel like to make you jump, because you're the bitch now."

It's a mentality. I'm google so even though I'm too lazy to send a proper email, he'll still come crawling to me.

Re: The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

#19

Post by ekianjo »

jrockway wrote: post #7
mvkel wrote: post #4

What an awful email. Reads like a lazy VC associate trying to do as little work as possible to pass along metrics to higher ups.

It's amazing how even when buying a company, people can't be bothered to use proper capitalization or even spell out the word "please". Wow. I must have slept through the English class where they told me this was OK.

It's funny how they refer to Schmidt, Page and Breslin as "the board" since it's obviously just 3 people :) In any large company you only use the "board" wording for a committee that's at least 15-20 people.

Re: The email I received from Google in 2007 when they wanted to buy Zlio

#20

Post by beambot »

ekianjo wrote: post #19
jrockway wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how even when buying a company, people can't be bothered to use proper capitalization or even spell out the word "please". Wow. I must have slept through the English class where they told me this was OK.

It's funny how they refer to Schmidt, Page and Breslin as "the board" since it's obviously just 3 people :) In any large company you only use the "board" wording for a committee that's at least 15-20 people.

The actual wording he used was "executive board" -- perhaps this is different from the "board of directors."
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