Interesting information. So basically this is how google decides what is spam in the index? By contracting the work out to independant companies like this one? What were some of the things you had to look for, could be VERY useful for us SEO's and webmasters wanting to stay whitehat. Thanks.
The information I had was enormously useful back then to my own SEO work, unfortunately it is useless now. Things change fast in SEO and IM, for example barely anyone now uses pop-ups and keyword stuffing which were big two years ago
the only jobs available on google are toilet cleaner and even for that you need to wait 6 months for an interview o_o
So you think all sites that are deindexed or penalized from google are a direct result of a "flag" produced by the discrepencies between these ratings you guys gave? I always thought Google didn't really check things out unless it was reported. Did you guys look through authoritative sites. Do you remember analyzing websites that you knew were on the first page of google results for major keywords?
No for the first, yes for the second. I'm sure the authorative sites would have been viewed at some points but most of the ones we were viewing were within their first year although some were older. I don't know if the sites we checked were reported by someone but I think not, 95% of the sites I saw were fine, no problems. If we were just rating reported ones then I would expect a much lower percentage to pass
if anyone hear was actually able to work within the google offices, consider yourself lucky. It is considered one of the hardest jobs in California to get. I would love to have a job there
Thanks, very interesting information. Do you ever recall actually seeing sites you had given bad ratings to later on either getting lower rankings or outright getting banned from the search results?
No I don't. We were never given the URL and the majority of them seemed obscure, plus as I have previously mentioned, roughly 90% of the sites were pornographic, and roughly 2/3 of them were gay so not the kind of sites I would be viewing while browsing. I'm quite sure that sites that would have been considered blackhat back then, if they were flagged up by us, would have been dropped from the rankings. That's why blackhat sites will do very well in getting up the SERPs but if they don't go completely whitehat before human inspection, they will suddenly drop off the radar.
lol, by posting this thread you've made alot of people happy. You've also managed to give many us an insight into what Google does and how they react to stuff. I guess this would be the perfect job for anyone who loves gayporn. If you don't. then be prepared to love it after you get the job title. It's rare to find someone giving out useful information for nothing, as others have said. Most eBooks are started this way (Glad you didn't try that route huh ) Not so sure i'll be applying, just yet As for those who said they could make more flipping burgers, Well thats your choice.I'd much rather have a chance at learning how google works than dealing with obese burger munchers, but hey. Whatever floats ya boat. Dude, you've brought a wealth of info to the forum. You get +Rep form me just for being so honest about the whole thing. Thanks and i wish everyone the best success in their applications. (Even though they don't appear to be accepting new applicants) Dan
wow thats nice but.... come on buddy Do we need to go to college and take some special course to work for them?
And it's nice to get feedback of this nature so I thank you too. Agreed on the opportunity to learn from the inside, can't learn much flippin a burger, I suppose the more you get spattered by fat, the more carefully you flip the burger. Wow was that an analogy? Hehehe Well I never wen't to college, have a number of computer related qualifications though, I don't believe they ever asked me for proof. As long as you are in an English speaking country you should be fine with nothing, if not then going off the responses, they are looking for proof of English fluency. It is said that the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Go and taste
If 90 percent were pornographic then they must be having you look through a pre-selected certain types of sites because if they were randomly picked sites then it would probably be only 10% or so of the sample. Unless its possible that most websites created are porn sites and that the only reason why we don't see them is because they were weeded out by guys like you?