When Your Site Ceases To Exist 191
El Lobo writes with a sobering account of how Javalobby dropped off the face of Google last month. The site had been attacked by forum spammers and Google indexed some of their spew before the Javalobby guys could remove it. According to a post in Rich Skrenta's blog, Google is now the de-facto front page for the Internet, accounting for anywhere from 70% to 78% of the search market. The power this conveys is hard to overstate. From the Javalobby saga: "We had completely disappeared from Google's main index! If you run a website, then you know how serious a problem this is. On any given day over 10,000 visitors arrive at Javalobby as a result of Google searches, and suddenly they stopped coming! ... Suddenly we no longer existed in the eyes of Google."
What's the problem...? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What's the problem...? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's their own fault... (Score:2, Informative)
You don't even have to code it yourself depending on what forum you're using. There are literally DOZENS of phpBB mods that are custom captchas, and all it takes is 10 minutes of adding copypasta to install them.
Ask Matt! (Score:5, Informative)
1. Fail to follow even basic internet precautions standard since 1998
2. Whine loudly on Slashdot when search engine behaves as advertised
3. Get lots of new traffic
4. Profit
Re:Anti-trust against Google? (Score:5, Informative)
Because you are an idiot. Go back to live.com and see where it shows up in the *search* results for maps (sponsored links DO NOT count, duh!). I tried, and the site appears nowhere in top TOP 50 results.
Hilarious, come on all you Google fanboys/MS anti-fanboys.... try and spin this one into yet another Microsoft bashing session I dare you, then I can see something truly imaginative.
You've already succeeded all on your own.
This Is An Easy Fix! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Never heard of them before, so nothings' change (Score:5, Informative)
They probably mean that they used to show up when you searched for "Java", but because the spambots created so many outgoing links they lost their PageRank and now you have to search for "JavaLobby" to get them.
Javalobby: good riddence (Score:2, Informative)
Good riddence! I dared criticise Java and OOP there and it started a long involved discussion. When the discussion ranked too popular on their traffic ranking system, the editors yanked it. They couldn't handle Java criticism so they pulled a "China".
It feels good when censorship aholes get what they deserve. Cheers!
Re:Never heard of them before, so nothings' change (Score:5, Informative)
How many days after a site has been transformed by hijackers/forum spammers/whoever into a pile of crap should it come off the top of googles search results? A day? A week?
60 days but you can request reinclusion sooner with Google Webmaster tools [google.com]
Re:It's their own fault... (Score:2, Informative)