I was reading an article that interviewed Matt Cutts and some Yahoo engineer, I forget the Yahoo engineers name because I hate Yahoo and think they will be out of business within a few years, also because of their evil paid inclusion scam that generates over $200,000,000+ per year by perhaps violating the FTC guidelines that Matt Cutts has been promoting lately. If it is not against FTC regulation it definately should be. I am angry that the incompetent FTC has ignored possibly the biggest Internet advertising scam of all time perpetrated by Yahoo for many years now, after many people have reported this Yahoo scam to the FTC.
So now that we have all of that out of the way, here is the big mistake Google has made:
The Yahoo engineer said it is a better approach to ignore any enforcement of paid link violations and just let the Internet run wild. At first most people would think that is crazy, however if you think about it I believe you will decide it is a much smarter strategy. If you do not worry about trying to enforce paid link violations it makes it very easy to filter and block any link juice from passing. Please think about it, if I put two outbound links on this page and collected money for one of them and the other was merit based how would Google or anyone know which one was a paid link and which one was merit based. It is impossible even for the great Google to know. It is absolutely 100% impossible for anyone to know.
I would appreciate anyone to email me and prove me wrong, my email address is tomforrest@htpcompany.com , if I am wrong I would be happy because of all the Google stock I own.
Before Google started to enforce this paid link policy is was easy for them. Webmasters put the words Sponsored Links on their page, and had a link to Text Link Ad companies promoting the paid links they were trying to sell. The footprint was clear and obvious and a piece of cake for Google to detect and filter. Now it will become impossible for Google to tell what links are paid and what links are not paid, and I have already seen Google penalizing innocent sites and guilty sites getting off free and clear.
I think what caused Google to make this bad mistake is all the pressure of the white hat webmasters telling Google enforce your guidelines or we will just think you are full of shit Google, and we will also start buying links. So Google was in a bad spot, however it would have been better for Google to have suffered though that then to be in the impossible position they are in now.
I just saw the funniest thing I have seen all year and it is related to this article. A webmaster that put a section on his site called "PAID LINKS SECTION" the only link in it is to Matt Cutts Blog. I wonder if other webmasters will also start doing that?
Also since Yahoo maybe in violation of the FTC regulations Matt Cutts has been promoting lately, I ask everyone who reads this article to write to Matt Cutts asking him to enforce Google's guidelines and FTC regulations and completely remove all of Yahoo's web sites and all of Yahoo's web pages from the Google search engine. Since Yahoo maybe the biggest violator of Google and the FTC guidelines in the world. Also ask him if the Google and FTC regulations apply to all web sites, or just some web sites?
The other sad part of this is how Yahoo treated small webmasters when they started their paid inclusion scam. This is right after they purchased Inktomi, I think I may still have the email Yahoo sent me, it basically said pay us for every click to be in the non sponsored natural listings of Yahoo or we will kick you out. So I refused because I knew this was totally evil and perhaps a violation of FTC regulations. One of my web sites is still not in Yahoo because I refused their evil attempts to make me pay. The reason I beleive it maybe a violation of FTC regulations and Google guidelines, is that when web surfers see these listings in the natural non sponsored rankings they are not marked that they are really paid for and this is deceiving the general public.
If deceiving the general public in this manner is not a violation of FTC regulations, the this is further evidence that the FTC is not doing their job properly. I have never show what Yahoo is doing to anyone who did not reply with a comment like: That's just not right, the government should not allow them to do that.
Also Yahoo in my opinion falsely claims that paid inclusion does not affect rankings and virtually all SEO experts know from direct experience using the paid inclusion program offered by Yahoo that this is a total lie by Yahoo. Furthermore they earn in my opinion over $200,000,000 per year from this scam against the general public and I may be dramatically underestimating how much Yahoo is earning from their scam, this is another reason why we need a FTC investigation. To think this is just random luck that these listings appear at the top of Yahoo's natural rankings is laughable. Sure a company that is losing market share and money every day would just by random luck have the paid inclusion listings at the top of so many searches and not marked as paid is ridiculous. This is why I am so angry at the FTC, why has the FTC not investigated this? I would love to be a fly on the wall if and when the FTC does investigate Yahoo for this scam against the general public. I would like to hear how the Yahoo engineers would answer these charges. Generally engineers do not like to lie and are very bad liars, so in my opinion this would be a very easy case to prove. In total this scam against the general public most likely has brought in over a billion dollars in revenue for Yahoo. FTC if you ever read this article I suggest five billion dollars in fines for Yahoo, if indeed they are found guilty after a full and fair investigation by the US government.
Also why has Google and MSN not created a paid inclusion program like Yahoo has?
It is not because they do not like making money.
Furthermore I do not think it is fair as Matt Cutts in my opinion seems to want, to try to apply the same standards and regulations to a small time webmaster. That however is for another article that I may write in the future.
When Yahoo started their paid inclusion program several years ago, it was back in the days where it was important to be in Yahoo. It really harmed millions of small webmasters. Today Yahoo is a joke and I do not care what they do with my web sites in their search engine. Since I believe in Karma I think Yahoo is getting what they deserve, and hopefully more if the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) ever goes after them.
I was raised to be a stand up guy and to do the right thing, and that it is never too late to choose to take the righteous path in life and I think Matt Cutts was raised that way too.
Definition of righteous:
1: acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin ; morally right or justifiable; arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality.
What about the founders of Google?
I thought they believe to not be evil, and that you can make money without being evil.
So Google should just kick Yahoo out of their search engine, it is just that simple for me.
Feedback and Comments Section:
I will not use any one's name here unless they ask me to:
1. This first one is from an Attorney:
"It makes perfect sense. If Google adheres to its “Don’t Be Evil” policy then it should kick Yahoo off."
Note: I know a famous Internet law expert and I am asking him for his feedback and comments on this article.
2. From an Internet marketing expert:
"Nice article, you should sphinn it."
3. "Well done, I side with your feelings. I’ll see what I can do.
Did Google penalize one of your sites or someone you know? I’m trying to see what inspired
your writing."
4. "very good article.. I would have to copy it to reprint it -- if you want that...and by the way, I have really been thinking about this yahoo scam because I can very easily prove what they are doing"
5. "I really liked your article. Now I understand why you don’t like Yahoo."
6. "What Yahoo is doing is evil and the FTC should punish them for their dirty tricks."
We have received hundreds more like #6 above, it is the most common feedback we have received so far.
Please send your comments to tomforrest@htpcompany.com and let me know if you want me to use your name or not.
Copyright © Tom Forrest 2008
All Rights Reserved.