steerpikegg - 6:59 pm on Jan 5, 2011 (gmt 0)

Placing warnings (like the malware warnings) on participating sites would also send a clear message.

I'll have to be brief as I am on the train, but I think that to tar and feather a company / site because they have a network of sites etc would be completely wrong and against the principles of the web. PR / keywords et al are something entirely of Google's own making and it is up to them to control how they use it. The whole point of the internet is that it is boundless.

If someone wants to set up a network of sites, or create a site that consists of the same word (keyword?) repeated thousands of times, then that is entirely their own perogative as long it does not break any statutory laws. If Google choose to index this and rank it, then it really is their lookout. They could quite rightfully remove them from the index, but nothing would give them the legal right to label the owner of said sites negatively.

I do not condone spam or those who originate it, but Google are not the 'police' of the internet and have zero right to say what any person can or cannot do with their website / links / content.

The fact that Google can come along and index/cache every page of your site without your explicit consent is in itself morally and legally dubious - indexing of pages by search engines should be strictly opt-in for better or worse. This alone may cut down a considerable amount of poor quality serps due to Googles mass consumption of pages that were perhaps never intended to be indexed in the first place.

This is not intended to be inflamatory, but just a statement of the facts. Google are not the internet; they are not the police; they must make the best of the hand that is dealt them when they choose to index the web at large.