Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Asking Google to remove scam from the company name suggestion
It’s hard for companies to approach Google in the best times, it’s even harder if you want something sensitive removed. If you have fallen victim to “your Company Name + Scam” in Google suggestions then what can you do about it? Well there are 3 options, all of which are not great:
- Control the first page of Google for your search term “Company Name + Scam” this is not great and re enforces Googles suggestions
- Try and influence Google suggestions, again very hard and expensive, services like Mechanical Turk have put a stop to allowing members to ask workers to type into Google a specific search effect suggestions.
- Contact Google via their open forum, who in their right mind wants to this and attract even more attention
What Google should do is allow companies to contact them directly privately about suggestions that are incorrect. I love the fact that Google has a form to report anyone using their Trademark, but at the sametime you cannot contact them to say stop calling my company a scam.
When google replaced scam for reviews, I thought great Google has seen sense, but not long after they reverted to suggesting
Would it be possible to get Google to add such a service like they have for reporting spam? Do businesses what such a feature? Love to hear your thoughts.
More resources on RM
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/our-online-reputation-management-playbook
http://explicitly.me/manipulating-google-suggest-results-%E2%80%93-an-alternative-theory
Google Drop Down Suggesting Scam
Over the last 24 months we have been watching Google and the search terms they suggest in the drop down. With the latest Google update “Google Instant” it has become even more influential on how users will look at the results.
So here is a typical step by step scenrio of how Google Drop Downs could be seriously damaging your reputation online.
- Potential candidate see job adverts online. Like any good candidate they want to do research on the company before the interview.
- Candidate can’t or does not know companies web address so in Google starts to type the company name. Just as the put the final part of the company name google suggestes “Scam”.
- Candidate then as anyone would wonders whats this? They click on the google suggested drop down now for Company Name + Scam and the results change from positive results to either negative ones or irrelevant ones.
- Candidate is now put off by either the negative reviews, comments, articles (which may or may not be true) or even just by the idea its a scam.
The next scenario for how Google’s Drop Down Suggestions can hurt a company:
- Customer is doing research on a building company, they see an advert but can’t remember the company website.
- Customer starts to do a Google search and see company name + complaints, naturally they search for that suggestion.
- Customer may now see a page of negative results rather than a balanced or positive ones.
Google Drop Down begins!
Hey, it is nothing but a coincidence…that we begin writing on this site today; the day Google has turned 12. So, let it be a birthday bash…b’day bash with words!!!
So where do we begin… the history of Google? Ah, that everyone knows; and those who don’t know can Google and find it out for themselves. There is no news repeating the same here.
Google is now an integral part of our lives, the ‘cyber’ part of our lives which however is so tangled with our day to day life that it has become inseparable. There are many of us who begin the day and end the day ‘googling’. Let’s dedicate this site to them and all those who are likely to fall in rank with them.
So much is happening to Google that you just close your eyes and say, “Let it happen. Why should I care?” You’ve got to care. You’ve got to ponder. It’s not just about typing in a search key and getting a drop down of suggested search keys, which have become even quicker and easier (?) with the launch of Google instant. (Hey, we are not overlooking instances where Google is fined for having let in inappropriate words among search keys!!) It’s more of an unending world of quick references that the search engine leads you on to. These quick references lead you on your quest for knowledge and hence the service that’s rendered is indeed valuable.
So, here we go, embarking on a journey into the world of Google searches….