randle - 4:56 pm on Aug 22, 2008 (gmt 0)

That's all I ask, for communications to be official and honest.

A frank and honest discourse is good.

Forget reverse engineering. We just want to know. We need to know.

Why do you need to know? Suppose you run a report and (your customers site I take it) comes up in position # 28 for the key word “widgets”; what then? What specific role does the reporting functionality play in what you do next? What is the sequence of events and actions taken based upon this data gleaned from running the report?

Most assume its; run the report, tweak, run the report, tweak, run the report, tweak run the report again, but perhaps there is more to it. I see the present cause for concern; Google won’t provide a tool to do it, and it appears they are curtailing third party vendors from providing it, despite allowing this activity for years.

It would be beneficial, and prudent for Google to put forth an “official and honest” statement on this; is it a band width concern, is it a reverse engineering issue? For those running the reports perhaps explain what specific role these things play beyond reverse engineering.