Squidoo gets the Google Slap and Cracks Down

[Linda Buquet]

Have been reading lots about the Squidoo crackdown on spam.
As it always happens after the spammers find a hole and start abusing the system,
it makes it harder for honest marketers to even use ethical marketing.

They have already implemented many new spam control measures that could impact you even if you are not a spammer. Among other things - no more iframes and also if you have a new lens you need to have more than 3 modules (not including the introduction) or it will not appear to be publicly published, even if it has been.

If you have a new Squidoo Lens or are considering one - read these posts.

"The lab has been investigating the recent drop in ranking for Squidoo lenses in Google’s search engine results. It appears that as of the 7th of July nearly all Squidoo lenses have dropped in ranking in the Google search engines. There is a lot of speculation in various forums at present (including Squidoo’s own SquidU forum) but the reasons are uncertain."
Source: Squidoo Slap!!

"Squidoo is growing by leaps and bounds, and with success also comes trouble. Spamming is a hot topic right now, and I just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know what we’re doing to cope with the problem."
Source: SquidBlog » An update on spam (including iframes)

"In last week’s post I mentioned that we’re embarking on an exciting, proactive approach to combating spam at Squidoo. We’ve learned two things in the last ten days or so: First, that spammers will flock when they find a hole they can exploit, and second that our users and others are incredibly helpful in finding the holes and working with us to plug them.

At the heart of our new efforts are six new structural changes that we’ll be focusing on over the next week or two..."
Source: SquidBlog » Fighting Spam, part II

[ayushpant]

Good one Linda. I was considering to use Squidoo as a way to promote couple of my websites. I will see how this story develops further before I invest my time and energy into Squidoo.

[ayushpant]

I read what SquidBlog had to say about fighting spam. I like the Step 2 i.e humans reviewing each and every lens. But, at the same time I wonder that it will result in significant delays unless Squidoo has tons of people working on reviewing lenses.

Also, with the Google Slap Squidoo just suffered, I can only wonder if its really worth it to create a Squidoo lens. Its really strange that one moment you are on top, and the next moment you are no where. Too bad, Squidoo had to suffer from the wrath of the mighty Google.

Lets wait and watch for now I guess.

[Linda Buquet]

I read on another blog that a guy that had lots of legit lens kept seeing them disappear. He thought he was toast. They they gradually came back live so he surmised something triggered the auto algo, then after a human reviewed they were revived.

I also don't know how bad the Google slap was
or if it was just a temporary algo oops.
So I'd do more research before discounting the option.

I read that HubPages had to tighten up too.
Durned spammers and porn peddlers ruin it for everyone!

I think there is still value in both though, but on the net the good stuff
doesnt last forever. Blogger was a gold mine at 1st too.

[ayushpant]

Originally Posted by Linda Buquet

Blogger was a gold mine at 1st too.

This is so true!!!! Wordpress came along and is way better than blogger. I see so many wannabes on Blogger (same goes for the free wordpress too) who have no idea what they are doing and just spamming people unknowingly or knowingly.

I am sure that very often you come across people on social sites like orkut who'd just type in their blog address on your scrapbook asking you to visit and are either trying to make money off of google adsense or some affiliate offer.

What they don't realize is that blogger or free wordpress is not taken seriously anymore. And ofcourse, thee are better ways to market your website.

[Teli]

It's no surprise that this happened. Every good thing that comes along is laid to waste by spammers and it ruins it for everyone.

As for the human review, I believe the lense only receives a human review if one of the computer algos gets tripped so it shouldn't take long to create a lense (as long as you don't set off any alarms).

Just checked my lenses and they're just fine. Of course, my lenses do contain helpful information and aren't spammy in the least. LOL Basically, you can still use Squidoo to market your website or blog, you just need to be smart about it.

~ Teli

[its_me_shaners]

If you have bought the latest Blogging to bank book, you'll know that rob benwell uses Suidoo to drive traffic to his blog, Well the gig "apparently is up" turns out the lots of Blackhatters have *****ed things up for squidoo.
And google is now apprently de-indexing the squidoo pages for abuse and spam, too bad really because up until now it was working like a charm.
This comes from tech crunch.

The reports indicate that some Squidoo pages have seen a 75% drop in traffic, and in other cases have either been removed from high ranking positions on Google, or removed all together.

Read the whole story here : Google Acting Against Squidoo Due To Spam

[Linda Buquet]

Ya I saw the Tech Crunch article because I saw a TRACKBACK.
They linked to my blog post in their story.

WHOOHOO love it when I get a link from a PR8 site!
Check out all the other trackbacks form people that picked up the story!
Some are direct pickups, but most of them are other blogs that syndicate
Techcrunch and picked up my link because it was in the TechCrunch article.

SORRY - little sidebar on the wonders of the blogosphere and how one little blog entry can go a little viral.

Back on topic, if I get time later this week I want to try to do a little more research on this. If you guys pick up any other news on this, please add it below.

[AffiliateGuild]

Hmmm, I've been reading a lot about Squidoo lately.
I guess we'll just always see the Internet as this ever changing
thing that's driven really ... by the spammers, and the crackers,
and the hackers. Geez, they sound like lunch food!

Thanks for keeping us posted on the events as they unfold.

[its_me_shaners]

THis maybe sort of along the lines of this post, as it concerns spammers andh Black Hatters. ChrisG Has a post on the topic of no-follow for comments
Comment Spammers the End of Do-Follow Movement? @ chrisg.com
Im in an unsual position because a good friend of mine is a black hatter splogger, spammer and hacker. And to boot hes a govt It security specialist. our govt employs hackers too funny.
He is what I define as an internet Anarchist. For them its a system to game and the bigger ones can direct traffic PR at will. Which is part and parcel of the game they play. I asked him about squidoo and the SE's heres what he said. (i'll summarize it, because he said something i think is very true- even for a spammer)
In his words "if the dumb*** webmasters new what they were doing and gave a **** about the products and people they were serving then this sort of thing wouldnt happen, add to that the fact that google has share holders to please and allows this to happen makes you wonder"
Just a little insight into the convoluted brain of a spammer