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Google Delists BMW-Germany

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the wild-wild-west-of-internet-search dept.

Raenex writes "The car maker BMW has had its German website bmw.de delisted from Google. The delisting was punishment for using deceptive means to boost page ranking, which has now been set to zero for BMW. Matt Cutts, a Google employee who works to stop unethical search manipulation, originally reported the delisting in his blog and suggests that camera maker Ricoh is not far behind."

7 of 613 comments (clear)

  1. Oh... by JK1150 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, is this why Miserable Failure still goes to President Bush? I see they really have a guard on deceptive search methods there at google, but I wonder why their stock is tanking...

  2. Re:Although this seems "reasonable" in light of th by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...it also illustrates the large and growing power of google, a power that may not always be used for optimal "goodness."

    In related news, after being de-listed, the headquarters of BMW Germany ceased to exist. People coming to visit the headquarters found only a vast, dark vortex of nothingness, over which were visible huge glowing letters reading "Error 404: Page Not Found". The entire German management of BMW has disappeared as well, along with several nearby dairy farms and a brewery.

    At a press conference, a reporter asked whether this sort of behavior fit with the company's "Do no evil" motto, or reflected a growing arrogance and malice on the part of Google. The Google spokesman declined to respond to the question. Instead his eyes briefly glowed red before the reporter spontaneously burst into flames and was consumed, leaving only a small pile of ashes on the floor.

    The remaining reporters had no further questions.

  3. In other news... by sethstorm · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...BMW drivers all over Palo Alto are somehow locked out of their cars, coincidentally affecting some Google employees. No word yet on if this affects all cars globally, or if this is a localized problem.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  4. Re:Although this seems "reasonable" in light of th by notnAP · · Score: 3, Funny

    The entire German management of BMW has disappeared as well, along with several nearby dairy farms and a brewery.

    Good Lord, no! Not the brewery!

  5. Re:Oh that's really good by typical · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think that if I were Google, and sufficiently irritated by BMW, I'd just provide a free adword for "BMW" to, say, a BMW competitor saying "Better than BMW".

    --
    Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
  6. Re:Although this seems "reasonable" in light of th by Eccles · · Score: 3, Funny

    It appears the BMW site was also referencing 'used cars' as well as new cars, and redirecting to their own site.

    Sounds dodgy to me.

    Dodgy? Chrysler was doing this too?

    --
    Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  7. Hang on, I'll Google for it by Namarrgon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh wait...

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?