How odd - my Thinkhouse PR blog post is banned from Google
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My post about Thinkhouse PR seems to have been blacklisted or banned from Google. Previously I was 3rd in google for the phrase “Thinkhouse pr” and now nothing. Other bloggers who pointed to my post are still there. Kind of odd isn’t it? Is Google censoring me? MSN is not. Still 3rd there. Yahoo is not. Also 3rd there. Will these disappear in time though?
I wonder will these other bloggers linking to that post suddenly find that Google will remove their posts too? If anyone wishes to copy my original post and stick it on their own blog, work away. That post has caused me a bit of stress I must say. I was contacted by some anonymous person and threatened if I did not remove it. They assured me they were not related in anyway to any of the parties involved in this matter, just some concerned web surfer. I believe them too. I have a copy of what they said to me and have forwarded it on to their ISP. MSN retains the IP addresses of those that contact you so it’s easy to get their IP. I have not decided whether to involve the Gardai in this.
The matter of the complaint itself has ended and I am awaiting to hear back from the Data Commissioner on whether I can publish their findings.
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October 23rd, 2006 at 10:46 am
Consider it copied and republished!
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:03 am
Ditto. By lunchtime you won’t be able to move for reposts.
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:04 am
It’s possible someone claimed that you were infringing their trademark - although I’m not sure of the procedure other than that for adwords and parked domains:
http://www.google.com/tm_complaint.html
If someone were to make such a complaint Google would probably weight there actions heavily in favour of the complainant.
>>>I was contacted by some anonymous person and threatened if I did not remove it.
If a “concerned web surfer” will go to those lengths they may also consider contacting Google - although Google are wrong to be taking action on account of concerned web surfers - they should only do it if they hear from someone with an interest in the mark.
There could be other more innocuous reasons. If many link to this post itself then the concerned web surfer may have a problem all over again….and if it mysteryiously disappears again, well once might be an accident but twice…
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 am
[...] Google seems to have mysteriously dropped Damien’s post on Thinkhouse PR spam, making it far harder to find for many web users… Simon has stepped in to make this process a little simpler and I shall do the same. Anyone else wanna join in? [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:40 am
It does seem like your entire site has been removed from any search for ‘Thinkhouse PR’ (checking via mcdar.net) - most likely as a result of a complaint from Thinkhouse .
I would drop Google a mail requesting further info. For a matter such as this there is *some* chance they will respond.
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I’ve another copy on damienblake.com - TrackBack doesn’t seem to be working though.
I’m very surprised this has happened- it’s not as if your post says anything which could be considered slanderous/libelous - although I’ll leave that decisions to the professionals!
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:57 pm
Thinkhouse PR spam complaint deleted from Google
Damien Mulley made a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner about Thinkhouse PR a while ago. He then published, on his blog, a copy of his complaint. This matter has been concluded by the Data Protection Commissioner in so far as they have decla…
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:02 pm
[...] As Damien’s post is missing from Google I think it’s up to the rest of us to spread the word. [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Trademark law does NOT prevent you from ‘taking a company’s name in vain’. It simply prevents you from using that protected name as your own name, or for one of your products. I don’t see how a trademark complaint is relevant here.
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Dublin’s Thinkhouse PR accused of spam; Google censors search listings?
Google has apparently removed a search listing pointing to a blogger’s complaint that the Thinkhouse PR were “repeatedlyâ€? spamming him. In their ‘Media and Marketing’ section, the Sunday Tribune yesterday published a story on the Dublin-based…
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:14 pm
[...] In any case, I think it’s a good thing that people are taking a stand about this sort of behaviour, and Damien has said people can republish his post, so here it is (not mine, Damien’s, to the Data Protection Commissioner): Hi everyone in Thinkhouse PR! As promised, here is my formal complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner for being repeatedly spammed by you on behalf of your clients. Just so you know I’ve also, as promised, contacted Three, Imagine and Ben and Jerry’s Ireland and asked them to investigate why I am getting spams about their products from you. I’m writing to make a formal complaint against Thinkhouse PR for continually sending unsolicited emails to one of my email accounts despite being asked not to. The email account in question is info [at] irelandoffline.org a part-time non-commercial voluntary group. [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Maybe Thinkhouse PR have relocated to China?
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
[...] Still, it’s worth drawing attention to the lovely Damien Mulley’s complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner about spam from a PR company and events that have followed it. [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Further comment from Jane McDaid on the complaint itself over at http://eirepreneur.blogs.com/eirepreneur/2006/10/fighting_negati.html#comment-24264244
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:02 pm
[...] UPDATE - I posted this yesterday and then came across Damien Mulley’s woes later. It makes a disturbing read. Google removing his post from search returns? [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:31 pm
[...] Maybe I am being the devils advocate here but ist it about time to leave this one go.Its mentioned here,here,here here and even the politicians are complaining These guys have apologized in full. This mightn’t bring me any new fans but I believe when someone apologises that should be the end of it. Cmon guys, nobody died give this company a break. Technorati Tags: General, pat phelan, roam4free, thinkhouse PRShare and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Hey, I like a good conspiracy as much as the next guy (big X-Files fan… well, of the early years at least), but I must respectfully note that there’s no nefarious banning that’s gone on here.
While it may be seen as unfortunate timing, some pages of mulley.net are currently not shown in our search results due purely to algorithmic factors… nothing manual or otherwise intentional about it.
It’s quite possible that this may change as we continue to update our algorithms regularly.
Regards,
Adam, on behalf of the Search Quality Team at Google.
P.S. — Ironically, with the online attention you’ve received about this issue, your pages may automatically end getting crawled more frequently or deeply, resulting in more of your pages being shown in our search results… so I humbly recommend a bit of patience.
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:44 pm
For some reason Askimet saw Adam’s comment as spam. I’m sure there’s some kind of irony going around.
October 24th, 2006 at 1:03 am
I would say it might be because the word “f*cker” and phrase “d*ck enl*rgement” (x2) are mentioned in the comments of that page.
October 24th, 2006 at 1:16 am
I like Eoghan’s answer; I’d love to hear what someone from Google thinks about that.
October 24th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Damien
For what it’s worth your site is very well indexed by Google but it appears that the page in question dropped out of the index completely. If it’s a coincidence then Google have some serious problems with the algo changes (they have been rolling out some sort of update over the w’end).
One hell of a coincidence though.
I posted this on the Google group earlier and Adam responded in a simialr vain. I have followed up with a further remark but I reckon that’s the last you’ll hear from Google. (But hey, you got one of Google’s spam team posting on your blog :))
October 24th, 2006 at 1:22 am
Hmm I hadn’t seen the comments over there.
They’ve probably flagged the page as spam because of the comments (seems harsh to me).
Take them out and see what happens.
Maybe no coincidence afterall.
October 24th, 2006 at 1:48 am
Doubtful; there are millions of google results for both risque phrases.
October 24th, 2006 at 9:41 am
If Google banned the post for two non-spam comments then they are a seriously shit service given the amount of genuine spam in every one of their results pages these days.
Jesus, I said “genuine spam”.
I won’t be altering people’s real comments just to keep the great Google god happy.
October 24th, 2006 at 10:01 am
[...] Damien Mulley finds that his excellent letter/coverage of spamming from Thinkhouse PR has mysteriously disappeared from Google. And suggests that reposting the original might not a bad idea. So here it is. They don’t deserve a link but it’s thinkhousepr dot com, if you’re interested. [...]
October 24th, 2006 at 10:52 am
[...] Damien’s post yesterday about Thinkhouse PR generated enough interest among bloggers that the story appeared on tailrank.com! Good to see that the issue is being brought to a wider audience. [...]
October 25th, 2006 at 12:14 am
Well I’m completely off base on the enlargement mulitple comments theory. From Google Groups a comment from Adam Lasnik:
“Just as a quick clarification (based on the conversation there), no, we
do not have a “dirty word” filter; e.g., we wouldn’t de-index something
because it has naughty words.
I’m guessing that this particular incident will work out in the end.
”
We do try to maintain an index that’s as comprehensive and timely as
possible overall
Starting to wonder if they even know what’s happened.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:38 am
[...] It looks like Google has fixed the algorithm error suggested by Adam Lasnik (see comments), as now googling for Thinkhouse PR shows Mulley’s open letter as the third result (and his blog on the post going missing in fourth). [...]
October 26th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
It’s now at 2nd on Google. Who would of thought that you would come up so highly for Thinkhouse PR? : ) .
October 26th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
[...] (To add a little current context here, if the story of Google misplacing a post from Damien Mulley’s blog is newsworthy then surely the constant news of road-related deaths deserves a lot more Internet attention?) [...]
November 1st, 2006 at 1:55 pm
linked in as well.
Virally promoting Blog Articles for Social Change
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:45 pm
[...] Going back a couple of months now, but you may recall a small fuss over Damien Mulley’s Thinkhouse PR post disappearing from Google’s SERPS. [...]
April 21st, 2007 at 12:05 am
Hey,
I love what you’e doing!
Don’t ever change and best of luck.
Raymon W.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Yeah now you’re ranking at 2nd and 3rd place for the keyword “thinkhouse pr”