Comments on: Google, am I stupid – or what is going on?

By: Leaflet Distribution

Leaflet Distribution — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:17:56 +0000

Hi Stefan,
I am sorry to read about the problem/mix up, when Google indexs a page I would guess that it takes all the content on that page as one article or at least a page talking about the same topic.

Has the offending text, been taken from your recent comments feed ?

If that text was in the first part of their comment then that would have been shown on the feed and hence on the page …
Not sure if that makes sense !! but it does to me !!

By: Jen Carpenter

Jen Carpenter — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:30:26 +0000

It’s pretty disconcerting that Google would include a ranking for a post, but base that ranking on a comment found nowhere within that post.

By: Stefan Töpfer

Stefan Töpfer — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:19:45 +0000

Interesting, not even the same post. Google changed what my post was all about.
Thank you guys for finding this.

Stefan

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:29:18 +0000

Ok. After I blogged about this, one of my readers found the comment on your blog. Look at this post:

http://www.sme-blog.com/office-it/apple-a-customer-support-nightmare

It is comment #6.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:55:50 +0000

I came over from Lisa’s (My Thoughts) blog.

I found that phrase on comment #6 on your previous post.

# T. Norfolk

Said on November 7th, 2007 at 8:37 pm

Monday Morning Blues.
I can not say enough good things about Apple customer support. Every time I go to their store (10 minutes drive from where I live) they treat me like I am special. I can see that they do that to everybody, but I still feel special. Compare that to BestBuy!!!
I am not buying a PC again!

By: Ross

Ross — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:21:38 +0000

To echo graywolf’s comment -

Yes, it is possible that a comment that you had yet to approve, was indexed by Google. A ‘normal’ web surfer would not have viewed the comment awaiting moderation – hence your moderation software IS working the way it’s supposed to. But, the Google Bot is not a normal web surfer. It finds things that a regular browser won’t. So, if the phrase “I can not say enough good things about Apple customer support” was ever even *awaiting* moderation, Google might have found it.

That is in fact the more likely scenario, as much as everyone wants to watch Google make a massive f*&*-up, they simply aren’t dumb enough to start doing what has happened here (text that was never actually on the page is displayed in search results) on purpose.

By: What Is Google Up to Now? | My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings

What Is Google Up to Now? | My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:11:15 +0000

[...] came across this article over at The Small Business Blog. It is very, very interesting. I am going to use the screenshot he took of a google search that [...]

By: Stefan Töpfer

Stefan Töpfer — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:43:12 +0000

I moderate first then publish – so this should not happen? I’m still not sure what is going on here?

By: graywolf

graywolf — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:34:48 +0000

depends on the way the software is built some programs run based on page views, so if the comment was made, the bot visited, but the moderation hadn’t yet run the google spider would see it and index it. It doesn’t happen often but I have seen it before.

By: Stefan Töpfer

Stefan Töpfer — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:56:28 +0000

Graywolf,

Thank you for your comment, I’ll try to find out, but wonder why Google would diplay something I have clearly not allowed on my blog.

I moderate all my comments personally?!

Stefan