Google Results Feedback Form Problem

[rfgdxm1]

...the the really should make an effort so that the spam report page doesn't result repeatedly in server errors. I'm a Zeal editor and spotted an obvious commercial doorway page that slipped by in one of my cats that someone approved. And, on closer inspection it was part of a huge link farm of similar sites. At least I was able to get through to a Looksmart editor about this. No luck at Google. :( At least I tried.

[GoogleGuy]

Hmm, tried it just now and it worked for me? Could you try again, rfgdxm1?

[Brett_Tabke]

You post so late some times that I think one of these days we are all going to be surprised to find out that GoogleGuy is actually the nite custodian at the 'plex (and a former roadie for Motely Crue).

Just tried it too, and went right through.

[martinibuster]

Reporting spam at 8:26 pm. Wasn't there anything on t.v. tonight? (I was working)

I tested the spam report link and it worked, at this late hour.

[veritysystems]

Hi GoogleGuy - can you tell us approximately how long it takes before a spam report is looked at and how soon action is usually started (e.g. removing domains, setting up new filters, etc.)

Many Thanks (especially for coming to WebmasterWorld in your spare time).

[diggle]

I have reported a mega mega-spammer to Google many times and nothing has been done. This guy uses all the illegal tactics going believe me - and still prospers greatly.It is very disheartening. My question is this. When I fill in the form for reporting spam on Google, I have never had an acknowledgment or a thanks page to indicate that it has gone through. It just seems to go back to Google so you have no idea if it has been received at the other end.
Shouldn't there be some indication as a matter of courtesy?
Thank you.

[veritysystems]

Even an autoreponse would be good, but we also have to remember that Google owes the owners of the URLs virtually nothing as they include everyone in the regular listings for free.

Yes, we must fight spam (in all of its forms) but Google also needs to make money and cover the costs of people actioning spam reports.

[diggle]

Don't get me wrong. I think Google is the best. I even use Adwords Select. All I'm saying is I am disappointed no action has been taken on my spam report and an acknowledgment that the report form has been received would be nice.

[Xylem]

Yeah I have reported a few seriously hardcore spammers in my niche. It has been over 4 months, and this site is still where it used to be.

The spammer in question is so lame - they fill their Meta tags up with web log data. Long lists of peoples IPs and the search query used to find them.

Repeating irrelevant groups of links everywhere….

Extreme Spam. Nothing from google – no action.

I LOVE GOOGLE! I just wish they would get more manpower on eliminating these jerks that screw the hard working webmasters out of valid rankings.

Man, if google could just put more effort into eliminating spammers.

I am starting to wonder if they don’t care about spamming on lower traffic (niche) keywords. Perhaps there so backlogged with spam reports, they prioritize the hardcore ones first, and may not ever get to the smaller keywords..

Love this forum!

Best Wishes to all,
-Xylem :)

[edited by: Xylem at 1:51 pm (utc) on Dec. 18, 2002]

[veritysystems]

The spammer I want stopped has one paragraph of keywords repeated 4 times in hidden text (1pt size) at the bottom of the home page (and has at least two competitive #1 rankings)!

[engine]

Admin Note: Let's not go into specifics, thanks.

[Brett_Tabke]

> I am disappointed no action has been taken on my spam report

What you think is spam and what Google actually considers spam, are two dozen different things. It's been my experience reading here, that 90% of all spam reports are not actually problems to/for google.

[diggle]

Brett,

In that case, I would be very interested to know what are the 10% of spam reports you do think that Google would consider a problem.

[rfgdxm1]

Looks like it went through this time Googleguy. This time it went back to the search page rather than a server error message, so I guess it worked.

[martinibuster]

Brett makes a good point. The stuff you pointed out is useless (meta tag stuffing, etc.). Certainly the tiny type is sketchy.

However, Google doesn't go out and eliminate spam on a one on one basis. Rather, it tweaks it's algo to eliminate any similar instance from occurring again.