A couple days ago, it was widely reported a certain Google result had been hijacked by another site using redirect technology. However, the site owner responsible for the presumed hijack disagreed with the assessment and would like to offer an explanation.
For those who may be unaware, the issue occurred when a search of the term “Google+Search”>Google AdSense” was performed. When the search results appeared, the first spot was taken by www.all-in-one-business.com/adsense/, which appeared to be using a meta redirect to re-navigate visitors to Google’s AdSense homepage.
Because the meta redirect was employed, many thought the site owner, Kevin Bidwell, was maliciously trying to hijack Google’s listing and reap the PageRank benefits from doing so. However, Kevin insisted this was not the case. In fact, he used his site to offer an explanation of what happened (oddly enough, the explanation is on the same page the redirect action was occurring). Kevin says:
- Why this little page has become relatively famous
This week a search engine blogger or two noticed something strange-when they searched for “adsense” or “google adsense” on Google, this page came up first in the results. Google came up second. This anomaly was caused by my using a simple meta refresh redirect to point people from my site to Google’s adsense page.
Once one blog had picked it up, many others did as well, creating a small stir. Some people claimed I was a hero, finally demonstrating to all one of Google’s fatal flaws. Others called me a hijacker, stealing page rank and position.
The reality is much less impressive.
I write articles and they are often syndicated throughout the web. A couple years ago when GoTo changed it’s name to Overture I realized I had a problem-all the articles I had written about GoTo now had outdated links in them. From then on I began using meta redirects for most of the URLs in articles I write. That way if a link changes I just have to make a small change on my own site, rather than having to email a couple dozen webmasters.
In other words, the hijack was not intentional, and it exposed a flaw in Google’s method of dealing with redirects.
Danny Sullivan expanded on Google’s apparent difficulty with dealing with redirects on the SearchEngineWatch Blog. In his post, Danny feels Kevin’s explanation is reasonable and proceeds to place the blame directly on Google:
Say it again. It hit Google. Google got its own listing hijacked. I thought I’d seen huge irony in March when WordPress spammed Google after pledging right on the Google Blog to help fight spam or when Google banned one if its own pages for cloaking. But this takes the cake. Google’s redirect bug bites Google itself.
Currently, the Google AdSense homepage has regained the top organic listing for the search term in question. However, it’s not certain as to whether or not they’ve corrected the manner in which they deal with redirects.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
