Google: Fighting Back on AutoLinks

[HaveItYourWay]

This thread is intended solely for discussion on how to fight back against Google with respect to their AutoLink proposals. Hopefully, it won't be hijacked by those who can see no evil in anything Google does. It's SOLELY to knock around potential approaches to beating this atrocity.


I'll start off with a few of my own:


1) Cloak & Serve
We own a number of high volume, authority sites which are not commercial. We can well afford to block anyone using the Toolbar. What we seek therefore is a cloaking script to identify use of this, and serve a different page: that page explaining why we do not allow anyone who uses the toolbar to access our data.

We would certainly deploy this, and I suggest that if a reasonable number of others did the same, it would have a serious impact.

Users want to see data on the sites they visit. If they can't do so with the toolbar in situ, they will either turn it off, or leave. I suspect many will turn it off.


2) Education Education Education
Most users will be blissfully unaware of the nature of the threat here. It's up to us to change that. Use the media, use your website, use your forums, use anything in sight, to explain what the high and mighty is up to.... and critically, where it leads.

Don't let the issue fade.


3) Brand Attack
Google gets away with an awful lot because of its brand. It has built a certain aura over the years. A serious weapon would be to chip away at this, using flaws and their own apparent lack of ethics as tools. Highlight things like:

- The many glitches in their SERPS. Let's face it, these guys seem to test their software in the real world. You could catalog a whole volume on their incompetence. Just check out the forums 'GoogleGuy' frequents, and check out how often he has asked for feedback on serious issues.

- Talking of GoogleGuy, the public relations fellow that Google sends out incognito, take a look at his pre-Florida mantra of 'content is king'. He pushes and pushes that line, inferring at the very least, that it is the key to ranking. The blind follow him, and the many of the blind are then zapood by Florida. Nice one GoogleGuy. And yes, nice timing too Google - destroying all those Moms and Pops just before Xmas.

- Page jacking. They sit back and watch, because it isn't a priority for them... fixing it wouldn't increase their short term financial gain. Nice guys.

- Anyone live near the Plex? Get down their and picket the darned place (media invited). Press press press.

I could go on and on here, without even re-reading Google Watch. You get the point though: weaken their brand and it will be easier to exert influence on AutoLinks.


4) Legal Recourse
This has to be an option of course. Is a class action possible? Anyone out there versed in net litigation?


Anyone else? Any other ideas? Any thoughts on the practicality or implications of the above?

[greeneagle]

Searchguild's "AutoBlink" JavaScripts to Kill GOOGLE's "AutoLinks" can be found here.
Ken

[HaveItYourWay]

That's a good find Geeneagle... thanks.

What I'd ideally like though is something that identifies that it is a toolbar browser, and presents a message to the user stating that they can't see our website unless they deactivate the toolbar.

In other words, the site is cloaked such that toolbar users are presented with a custom no-entry page.

If enough sites did that.... yes, users would start to deactivate and uninstall this piece of adware/scumware by the bucketful.

[RadarCat]

To chip in my two cents worth against Google, I took their link off all my main pages and left the links to the AllTheWeb, Altavista, Eniro, Teoma and Yahoo search engines on.