What's going on?

Cloaking or some other deceptive practise

[mcjim]

From time to time I will search for copyright infringement by selecting a short phrase from my web page and do a Google search for that exact phrase. Recently about a dozen other sites (all seem to use the same template) appear in the results. The description in each result is a direct steal from my site... word for word. When I go to one of these sites and search for the phrase, it does not appear on the page or in the "view source" nor does it appear anywhere in the cached version. How is this possible?

[skipfactor]

Try the Sim Spider [searchengineworld.com]

add: where are my manners? Welcome to WW. :)

[mcjim]

Thanks.
Handy little tool that Sim Spider :>)
I tried it on the suspect sites and all the links to the suspect sites and cannot find any reference to the search phrase. It's a mystery.

[skipfactor]

cannot find any reference to the search phrase

It sounds like you're talking about a commonly used search phrase here instead of a unique copyrighted paragraph. These queries might provide some insight:

allinanchor:yourphrase

&

allintext:yourphrase

[mcjim]

Tried that Skipfactor and got no results.
You will notice that a search for:
<snip>
you will notice that a number of results descriptions are identical and are a direct copy of the text of the number one URL. Hope I'm not breaking any rules of the board by this explanation.

[edited by: Marcia at 7:35 pm (utc) on Aug. 9, 2003]
[edit reason] No specifics, please. [/edit]

[SlowMove]

I see what you're saying. Complaint time:
[google.com...]

The funny thing is that all of the original content on their sites doesn't show up at all when searching. They're cloaking, but I don't see why.

[skipfactor]

I see what you're saying mcjim. Including "mcjim" "Webmaster World" and "GoogleGuy" in the text of your spam report sometimes expedites action.

[pageoneresults]

Including "mcjim" "Webmaster World" and "GoogleGuy" in the text of your spam report sometimes expedites action.

No it doesn't. It brings undue attention to yourselves. The cloaking forum is here to discuss issues related to cloaking, not for reporting those who are using cloaking. Google and other search engines provide outlets for you to directly report any issues you may have with certain practices, please utilize those and not this forum, thank you.