Tallon - 12:10 am on Sep 30, 2010 (gmt 0)

There will always be some greedy, scammy sob to mess it up for the rest of us forcing Google to tighten the system up once again.

Well I'm not so sure that this method of generating buzz IS a scummy practise (other than it's probably illegal in many countries since choosing the "contest winners" (if real) aren't moderated by an independent accounting firm). A site should be able to generate buzz right?

My point is that I'm very surprised google would give any real weight to social media links, comments, tweets, twitter followers, facebook fans, etc., considering how incentivized much of that stuff is (at least in some circles). Even comments on blogs, twitter followers, facebook followers are many times paid for.

If I say: I'll give you $5 to link to me, or $5 is yours if you retweet my article or leave a comment...or I'll link to everyone who links to me, etc...why would that be frowned on by google and not: If you link to me, retweet my post, subscribe to my twitter feed, I might pick you as my contest winner! What's the diff?