Google demotes Chrome in search results after violating own paid links policy

Google's search team has demoted the main page for its Chrome browser for at least 60 days after being accused of violating its own policy against paid links with a marketing campaign designed to boost Chrome's popularity. Searching Google for "chrome" no longer brings up www.google.com/chrome in the first page of results, but the first result is still a guide from Google on how to download and install Chrome. Reporter Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land notes that searching for "browser" also no longer brings up the Chrome home page among the top results, whereas it was previously the second result after Firefox.

"We?ve investigated and are taking manual action to demote?and lower the site?s PageRank for a period of at least 60 days," Google said in a statement supplied to Search Engine Land.

The action was taken because Google sponsored hundreds of blog posts that seem to be little more than advertisements for Chrome. Google blamed Unruly Media, the advertising firm that ran the campaign on Google's behalf, saying in a statement supplied to AllThingsD that ?Google never agreed to anything more than online ads. We have consistently avoided paid sponsorships, including paying bloggers to promote our products, because these kind of promotions are not transparent or in the best interests of users. We?re now looking at what changes we need to make to ensure that this never happens again.?

The Google statement quoted by Search Engine Land also notes that "While Google did not authorize this campaign, and we can find no remaining violations of our webmaster guidelines, we believe Google should be held to a higher standard, so we have taken stricter action than we would against a typical site."

If you're curious, searching Microsoft's Bing for "browser" doesn't bring up Chrome in the regular results, but it does come up as a clearly-marked advertising link. Searching Bing for chrome brings up the Chrome home page first.

Source: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/everything/~3/CuCZ9D1Mee8/google-demotes-chrome-in-search-results-after-violating-own-paid-links-policy.ars

norad santa epic beard man new york jets nfl standings broncos broncos giants vs jets