43 replies to this topic

[ideasunlimitedgoa]

Hi,

Please let me know exactly what is automated queries and what is the penalty that google gives for such queries. Does Arelis use automated queries. Is it harmful ?

kindly let me know

[Jill]

Any time you use software that has to go to Google to retreive information, it's using automate queries. If you're not entering in a Google API key, then you are going against Google's terms of service. If they catch you, they may not allow you to use their search engine at all. If they can figure out for sure what your website is, they may penalize or ban it.

Hope this helps.

[piskie]

Exactly Right. Quote from Googles TOS:
"Don't send automated queries to Google."

Google Says:
"There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index."

No further detail is ever given for obvious reasons.
Note the "almost"

I am of the opinion that Automated search retrieval can form the core of a dirty tricks campaign.

Edited by piskie, 04 January 2007 - 12:37 PM.

[Jill]

You have 2 quotes from Google, but what do they have to do with each other, piskie?

[piskie]

I am not going to be any more specific on an open forum.
It would be irresponsible to elaborate further.

Just apply some thought process to merging those 2 quotes, add some contrived circumstances and take it from there.

[sonnyyu]

Note the "almost"

http://www.highranki...h...=24421&st=0


This is an other perfect example of “Google never Liar, but it would not tell you truth”

[Randy]

A totally different subject there sonnyyu.

In that example it's talking about who you link to from your own site. Which you have complete control over. If you don't have complete control over who you link to, then that's your own fault.

Seriously piskie... If you want to spout conspiracy theories or whatnot, this just isn't the place to do it. There are plenty of other fora that will gladly accept and recognize that kind of stuff (<added><cough>SEOChat</cough></added>), but it's not here. If you don't have at least some type of proof you're probably better off not commenting when you have a feeling about something like this.

Edited by projectphp, 06 January 2007 - 11:15 PM.
Added a helpful link ;)

[Connie]

Piskie, when you do an automated query, it is from your computer, and the IP you are connected from. It has nothing to do with any website as far as I know.

If you do to many unauthorized queries from the same IP Google could block you from using their services.

In reality I doubt this happens to often. It is a potential problem for the person doing the queries. I really doubt that you can harm my site in this way.

[Jill]

In reality I doubt this happens to often. It is a potential problem for the person doing the queries. I really doubt that you can harm my site in this way.

Yes it does happen often (at least it used to years ago). And yes it can harm sites. But like I believe I said in a previous post here, they would only ban the site if they knew for certain that the site owner is the one doing the automated queries.

They do have ways of telling this.

[sonnyyu]

Randy,

In that example our "smart" competitor link to my site, which I have no control at all.

Top two Google SEO rules:

Don’t be evil.
Don’t tell truth to SEO people.

[piskie]

The point I was trying to make is that there are theories about sabotaging a competitors site and they mostly centre around automated software with extras. So don't risk tripping the first stage of the filter by using automated queries.

[Randy]

Good advice there piskie. All of the engines make APIs available these days for exactly this sort of thing after all, so there's no need to bend the rules. Heck, Google allows 1,000 queries per day per license, Yahoo! 5,000 per day per IP and MSN something like 10,000 per day. Anybody running more than those numbers each day for their own projects is spending waaaaaaaaaaay too much time over-analyzing stuff anyway.

sonnyyu: I guess I'm still confused. Because I still don't see any connection between someone linking to you and automated queries. Unless your site is so UNsecure that it allows others to execute code on their server but make it appear to be running on your server. I must be missing something vital in your equation.

FWIW, I've had lots of people ask me why I don't add a little PageRank indicator for those who like it to my API tools. While I might consider doing this if Google said it was kosher --even though I personally find PR to be a waste of time for the most part-- I would never do it because it's a violation of their TOS since there's no way to get it other than to scrape it from Google's toolbar server.

Sure I have the code to grab the PR of any page that I could add into the mix in under five minutes; and sure I could set everything up so that it went through a proxy to obfuscate the originating IP number. But even that's not absolutely foolproof. It still leaves footprints. I for one am not about to get my site(s) or server(s) blacklisted by doing something that stupid. So don't expect any little PR graphics to start showing up with any of the API tools I release.

[projectphp]

The worst thing about automated software is Google can ban your ip from searching. Happenned to the firm I used to work at, simply as a result of people just searching all day long (40 ppl on one IP address), and let me tell you, trying to run an SEM firm without access to google.com is pretty, pretty, pretty tough.

[sonnyyu]

Randy, I only comment the "Google’s almost", where is connection between someone linking to you and automated queries come from?

[Randy]

Randy, I only comment the "Google’s almost", where is connection between someone linking to you and automated queries come from?

umm...

Because it's the title of this thread sonnyyu. Automated Queries

And all of the discussion until you introduced another thread about something totally different.

Frankly, I don't fault Google or any other company for using non-specific delimters like "almost". It's good business. For the same sort of reason Google set aside $200 million (yes I'm serious ... that's $200 Million) to deal with potential copyright infringement issues when they purchased YouTube. Good business.