Comments on: Shady Services and Faking Social Proof

By: Overheard in the Blogosphere 9 | Remarkablogger

Overheard in the Blogosphere 9 | Remarkablogger — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:43:18 +0000

[...] Kissing ass has gotten a bad rap because so many people are bad at it. They’re like amateur magicians that the crowd boos because their tricks are obvious. Jon Morrow Advertising will get more and more targeted until it disappears, because perfectly targeted advertising is just information Dave Winer In many of the programs I present, I ask my audience if they can tell when a blogger is faking it. Lorelle Van Fossen A high subscriber count on a lousy blog is like a hobo wearing a Rolex. Chris Garret [...]

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:32:50 +0000

I think Google will be able to detect the majority of these scams. I know I could write an algorithm that would catch 99.9% so a company with so many PHDs would have zero problem

By: Andy Boyd

Andy Boyd — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:27:11 +0000

While some will be doing this now to help get new advertisers onboard, I think we're going to see this continue for one main reason: SERPs.

IMO Google acquired Feedburner so they can integrate the number of feed subscribers as a metric for quality and trust into their algorithm.

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:00:08 +0000

@Matt – Unfortunately I think the types to fall for it are not the types to do their research

@Kevin – Yeah, there seems to be a lot more short term thinking around, the instant-win culture

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:09:34 +0000

I agree, I don't see any real benefit from inflating your feed rank. Of course, there are always those who look for a short term fix to what should be a long term plan.

By: Matt Jones

Matt Jones — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:24:56 +0000

Couldn't agree more. Everyone who is considering using a shady RSS boosting service should read this post.