No it is not. It is essentially deceiving his visitors that do not know better to use his search tool from Google which is a direct violation of TOS.
Yes he is. I have not seen him in a while myself, but still an issue and very sad when it is someone from the forums that everyone knows who is doing it.
Very upfront about what he is doing on his sites. Plus giving away some good material for free. But yes, he did step over the line on his google search. His email to me was a bit vague, hinting it was a beta google search engine for looking for articles, tools etc. Then his blog is very vague again about the google search bar, saying it is a beta engine. Am sure, he will fix this. Then of course, one of those ideas I would have loved to think of and implemented!
Well you have to give him an A for originality. I agree he usually has good Material on his site though. This was just crossing the line. I thought at first maybe he is running a test on it and not using his ID, but a source view showed that thought was wrong.
I thought the same thing. I did email him as I received the same newsletter. He said that he would change the wording around. As helpful as he is to his subscribers, I don't want to see Big "G" nail him.
You are right. I have dealt with him a few times here at forums and he has been honest and upfront with me so was really surprised by his use of the search bar.
Your reactions are really interesting : 1) Do you think I will advertise if I think something was wrong? 2) It's not agasint Google TOS to put a search box (I don't ask people to click) 3) The search box was in "ca-test" mode (altough I forgot it at the beginning of the test)so no revenue at all even if visitors click after they made their search 4) Those who know me know why I'm doing that. 5) If you have a doubt, don't be afraid to report to Google. 99% of my members (and of webmasters / surfers) don't know that such a feature exist. So what is the problem to promote it and make a little buzz around it. You are just ready to jump and bite anything "strange" without trying to see what's behind...why not use all this energy to have positive ideas to build something around that. I have removed the search bar and now give instructions on how to use it. It's less friendly but you won't be so disgusted by such a terrific and unethical practice
Thanks for commenting Ethic. I missed the CA-test part and as I said I was surprised that you would do something that would be a violation. I can understand peoples confusion on it though. I apologize for my mistake on not seeing you were in a CA-test mode.
If this can create a buzz and make people try it and visit my blog, no problem. In the middle age people were burnt for less, so I feel happy today May be you could just go beyond and comment this feature, as this was the main purpose.
LOL I was going to burn you at the stake and then thought wait I might be found out so I decided it was best not to. Actually it was a good buzz and more people will find your blog for it LOL. Good luck Ethic.
I posted this link here to get another opinion. It was very questionable to me but I had no intentions on calling the "Dog Pound" or anything. You've always been helpful. It was very creative but at the same time it seemed to be really risky. No problems sweets
Hey mediahustler, The search box looks really nice, and blends well. But the search code and graphic IS modified, so is breaking the tos. The only formatting changes are those generated in the adsense control panel. I'd take this off, or at least mail google and ask for input.
Medihustler, how'd you set the radio button as dumbnerd instead of dumbnerd.com? i want mine to show "This site" instead of my full domain name, which eats up too much horizontal space.
devin look for <tr> <td> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="" checked="checked"></input> <font size="-1" color="#ffffff"><a class="black">Web</a></font> </td> <td> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="dumbnerd.com"></input> <font size="-1" color="#ffffff"><a class="black">dumbnerd</a></font> </td> </tr> See where it has dumbnerd.com leave that as yourdomain.com but change where it says dumbnerd below that. See?