Virtual Astroturf: Google +1 For Sale

Following on Julian Dibbell's report on Google not getting something, search engine optimizing shops are selling Google +1's (thanks Travis Ross for the tip). It reminds me of the politicans' term for generated "authentic" grass roots public opinion: Astroturf.

Comments

[Brian Carnell]

1.

This story is just silly. As Google outlines in its +1 FAQ, This story and the folks selling +1s completely misunderstand how +1 works.

Google +1s only influence rankings, etc. if they are from people you are affiliated with in Google+ or your Google contacts (see https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=1140194)

For example, Edward Castronova is not in my Google Contacts or my Google+ account. Spammers can hire him to +1 stuff all day, and it isn't going to effect any Google results I see at all.

So the only real issue here is if you have a lot of friends/family/acquaintances who are selling their account access to SEO spammers.

A better headline for this would be...spammer scam SEO (or blind scamming blind or something like that).

[Heather]

2.

Oh, don't you doubt for a second those SEO spammers understand how a +1 works. What matters is that their customer don't understand... making themselves easy marks for a quick money scheme.