Detectability of hidden text

Ignoring these recent Dominic changes....

[trillianjedi]

I was wondering if google can detect the following:-

1. Text against image background - for example, red text against a .gif image which is just a red block (so hidden, but not according to background colour).

3. 5 lines at the bottom of each page stuffed with small font sized keywords.

I'm not doing any of the above because even if it's possible now, I'm sure it won't be in the future. But I know a few who are, one of whom seems to have dropped from a PR4 to a PR2 quite recently.

Any thoughts?

TJ

[jeremy goodrich]

Google does have some OCR technology they developed in conjunction with their catalogs service, so it is entirely possible that they may have developed something that analyzes image color.

And, they have been downloading images for quite a while.

It's a bit silly to 'stuff' keywords in your text, though - creating a usable site will win out in the end, long term, every time. :) But, I guess perhaps the other bloke with the 'almost but not quite hidden text' didn't know that?

[trillianjedi]

The sites in this field (non-commercial hobby site) are mostly utter rubbish, and I don't think they really have a clue about SEO.

This particular one is doing well in www-fi SERPS though - seems that the hidden text is really working for them.

I'll wait and see how they do after google initiate the spam filters on the -fi data.

TJ