COGBLOG

This weekend on Matt Cutt’s Google Blog he announced that he and his other Googlers on the webspam team had removed the German BMW site from the Google index. I can just hear the screams of “Nein!Nein!Nein!” coming from BMW HQ right now.

According to Cutt, the BMW site was violating the Google guidelines by creating pages exclusively for Google, not for web users. These doorway pages used a JavaScript to immediately route visitors to alternative less text-heavy pages within the BMW site.

You can see examples of the pages here:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ramping-up-on-international-webspam/

Cutt finishes off his post with an interesting message:

“to the domestic car maker whose European domain had hidden text on the front: your 30 day removal was set to expire in two days, but the hidden text has been taken off the page, so I’m scheduling the domain for reinclusion now”.

I guess the tone there sort of strikes me as a strange overly-casual wielding of power. Sort of the same feeling I often get after hearing George Bush speak.

But, then it also strikes me that these two issues–text doorway pages, and hidden text–are some of the oldest tricks in the book. It’s been pretty clear that these are a bad idea since what, 1999? Who advised BMW to do this in the first place I wonder?

P.S. If this headline doesn’t say “Don’t trick me” blame Google’s Translation Tool.