No Duplicate Content Penalty?

Thousands of Borrowed Articles and High PR?

[P0pcornB0y]

On of the foremost information websites on the planet (monetized with adsense, affiliate ads and vibrant text links) contains volumes of reference materials, articles, database product info and news articles, all supplied by 3rd party content providers and shared with a gazillion other sites on the net. This site has HIGH rankings, great PR, and lots of natural links.

HOW? There's no original content whatsoever. Truly. Where's the "duplicate content penalty" that they all speak of?

Any ideas?

[tedster]

There is no real duplicate "penalty" just for reprinting information - but there is a filter to make sure that Google users don't get ten choices that all lead to different copies of the same thing. If a site has aggregated lots of useful information in one place, then that service of aggregating can attract the natural links that help it to be one of sites that is not filtered out on a relevant search.

[P0pcornB0y]

There is no real duplicate "penalty" just for reprinting information - but there is a filter to make sure that Google users don't get ten choices that all lead to different copies of the same thing. If a site has aggregated lots of useful information in one place, then that service of aggregating can attract the natural links that help it to be one of sites that is not filtered out on a relevant search.

So it really is about relevant backlinks, then... isn't it?

[jimbeetle]

Backlinks, yep. Throw in unique titles and descriptions and you're gold.

[dgdclynx]

Just to say that I now notice that my file spotted containing duplicate content and thus moved to the bottom of the Listings has now been removed from the Listings entirely. Naturally it had been made Supplemental. Perhaps all Supplemental are gone. News to me.

[dgdclynx]

I made a mistake. My file is in the index but hidden away so I didnt spot it yesterday.