Crack Cocaine! Google, Yahoo Chase the Dragon

seobook on Fri, 2005-12-23 16:46.

Search marketing

14 comments

When you hear search engines talk about bad neighborhoods they mention things like WAREZ sites.

Some people would be afraid to link at Astalavista, thinking they might be pointing into a bad neighborhood or supporting software theft. Google and Yahoo! apparently think the site has quality content and have both decided to endorse software theft worldwide by placing their ads on the site.

Google will tell you to avoid bad neighborhoods and Web Position Gold:

Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.
Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Image of a cracks search.
but they sponsor sites that help you steal the software ------>

How would you like to be the ad buyer paying Google for the privledge to place ads for your software next to cracks for stealing it?

I don't think this post is outing anybody either. As the most famous WAREZ site, Astalavista enjoys a PageRank 7, ranks #1 in Google for [cracks], and most of my web friends have heard of the site. Surely it gets enough traffic to where Google and Yahoo! both know it is a publishing partner.

Are these search companies this greedy? Supporting any site so long as there is traffic? Without regard to the business model or who they hurt? The engines really need to clean their shit up before they force others to help them.

How can anyone take these companies credibly when they talk about marketing techniques, targeted leads OR content quality?

Comments

Does google need to take a

webprofessor on Fri, 2005-12-23 19:23.

Does google need to take a harder view on its publishers ?

Sure but....

Could you imagine a world where you had to ask for a review of every site you made before you placed an ad on it ? How would they handle that effeciently and quickly ? What would it cost to implement ? Who decides what is moral and how would they enforce the new moral standard in a fair and consistent way ?

Be careful what you ask for because you might get it.

You've got Astalavista all

Phil B on Fri, 2005-12-23 19:29.

You've got Astalavista all wrong. It's not a site for warez and cracks. It's for security professionals.

No really it is ;-)

typical

duncanriley on Fri, 2005-12-23 20:09.

you cant use Adsense on sites that show nudity (even for a one off) or gambling but its ok on a crack site??? And Yahoo and Google next to each other? sounds like they've got their own special deal as well.

Use of force?

Jill on Fri, 2005-12-23 21:16.

Quote:

The engines really need to clean their shit up before they force others to help them.

Force others to help them what? I can't say I've seen the engines force anyone to do anything.

Force others to help them

seobook on Fri, 2005-12-23 21:59.

Force others to help them what? I can't say I've seen the engines force anyone to do anything.

Do the engines still sell online gaming ads in the US?

relevant link: there was a Regulating Search Conference at Yale a few weeks back

but spiders are fine

plumsauce on Fri, 2005-12-23 22:59.

that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

How would they handle that effeciently and quickly ? What would it cost to implement ? Who decides what is moral and how would they enforce the new moral standard in a fair and consistent way ?

that's their problem.

Odd

McFox on Sat, 2005-12-24 02:14.

Odd that Google's policies for Adsense state:

"Site may not include:

Hacking/cracking content
Any other content that promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others"

it'll be our problem when

webprofessor on Sat, 2005-12-24 05:15.

it'll be our problem when they try and implement a solution. I don't want a scenario where I have to manually ask google permission everytime I make a new page.

Yea, so the story's main

tgraham on Sat, 2005-12-24 09:21.

Yea, so the story's main problem is this -you're still labouring under a (very) dated illusion that search engines are 'moral'. It's just not true. Yahoo and Google have both compromised their morality before - china... - and certainly do put profits ahead of people.

Btw- great site!

Why should search engines be

SlyOldDog on Sun, 2005-12-25 03:59.

Why should search engines be moral at all? They are for finding information - not censoring it.

Give me filters to help me censor the information, but make that my choice.

Advertising is another matter because there's no need to show bad ads and there is a finite number of advertisers who all pay and engines can afford to screen.

When and if you use this

MaxD on Sun, 2005-12-25 08:16.

When and if you use this site be super careful it is full of viruses, spyware and all other sorts of nasties. Some guy in our office did a reinstall last week after a virus from Astalavista shagged his machine. Off topic I know...

I believe that this

MattCutts on Wed, 2006-05-17 09:04.

I believe that this publisher was terminated from AdSense shortly after you mentioned this, Aaron. I visited the site today and didn't see any AdSense at all.

When and if you use this

Nick Wilsdon on Wed, 2006-05-17 09:43.

When and if you use this site be super careful it is full of viruses, spyware and all other sorts of nasties

To be fair the nasty stuff is on the off-site links from the Astalavista crack SE's. It's not somewhere you should be hanging around if you are unsure what to click (and how to check files before running them) - owning people inexperienced in this area is probably half the payback they get from writing the cracks.

I've ordered the Astalavista security disk before though, it was very good. The articles they put on there are also well worth a read when you have some spare time and want to get a bit geeky.