I’m taking a stab at clearing out my inbox tonight. I got a recruiting email from Yahoo yesterday, but they were trying to reach a different Matt:
Hello Mr. XXXXXXXXXX,
I found your name on XXXXXXXXX.com and I wanted to reach out to you to see
if you would be interested in exploring opportunities with Yahoo in New York
(or Chicago). I am working on a couple of roles that you may be a fit for
and I would like to know if you are interested in learning about the
opportunities.
How should I reply?
Hi, you have the wrong Matt. No offense, but I don’t think I’ll refer you to the right one.
or maybe
Jeff, shall we discuss this over lunch sometime to talk? You can meet me at the plex.
Hmm. There’s the tried and true
I nofollow you!
Maybe I’ll just delete it and get back to clearing out the ol’ inbox.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, free trip to NY (or Chicago) if you ask me…
Definitely over lunch.
My opinion…keep clearing! I know how much you like to help others, but this ones not worth the time or energy for either help or humor (although it probably would be nice to reply with a witty remark).
Maybe posting about the mistake here is enough since its so widely viewed by so many in the search engine industry anyway.
Oh well, honest mistakes are what make us human I guess.
Ouch. I wonder how many people you’ve just turned a bright beetroot red with embarrassment Matt?
Why not go undercover? If you fly the “American Chopper” goatee, nobody will recongize you… /David
RE: “How should I reply?”
Yawho?
You would have sentirte lucky, if you accept you could eat free every day in the dining room of boys who I believe that they are made call google or something thus.
I like “I nofollow you!” made me laugh. Since you [Google] did actually follow you?
> but they were trying to reach a different Matt:
sure? perhaps that’s the trick
You should totally blog it!
That’s what I’d do.
Whay don’t you tell them what everyone else says…
What is Yahoo?
You should try the Dude’s fish shop at 1600 amphitheatre parkway, mountain view…
Once I had a Medical Center in New York leave a voicemail on my machine saying they wanted to send me to a conference in New York and to call them back and give them my contact information so that I could confirm that I’d be willing to speak and they could send me a business class ticket. They were mistaken of course as I new nothing about opthamology.
It thought about calling back to get the ticket and arrange to go speak in New York on a mini vacation but decided against it.
you could forward me the job. I’ll take it
I would meet with them … definitely
– I t should make for a fun follow up
I suggest the quote “Jeff, shall we discuss this over lunch sometime to talk? You can meet me at the plex.”. Ahaha that would be quite funny — or email them saying you don’t like it when other companies try to pay you off to move to their company rather than google
Funny.
Definitely worth some sort of a reply.
How ’bout, Que? “No habla Yahoo?”
Also really like the idea of having them spring for lunch – them let them know you aren’t “the” Matt they’re looking for.
Dear (recruiting agent),
Thank you very much for considering me for the opportunities in New York and Chicago. I would like to express interest in one or more of these positions, and would like to speak with you further regarding this matter.
Since you have indicated that there are multiple positions available, I’d like to recommend my friends Sergey and Larry. Both of them are experienced search engine professionals and would be a great asset to your organization.
We would be willing to fly to either New York or Chicago to speak with you in person. We wouldn’t require a plane ticket, since we have our own Boeing 767. We would, however, ask in good faith that you pay for the gasoline. 767s do have problems with fuel economy, as I’m sure you’ll be able to relate to.
Should you wish to pursue this matter further, please don’t hesitate to call or email me. If not, I would ask that you please keep a cached copy of my email on file for future opportunities that may arrive.
Sincerely,
Matt Cutts
MC/as
Use as appropriate.
So Matt, if you go to work for Yahoo, do you think Google will sue?
Maybe Matt is just sneaky, and is trying to get someone to give him a raise.
LOL, dont you just love the web! Dont respond, they will get the drift or realize their mistake. I do like the response by Adam Senour above (Good One)
Hahahha this is so fun! Adam Senour nice letter
Matt never let a chance to network get past you.
Someday they may want to approach you for a job
.
That’s funny!
How about replying, “I’ll run that by Larry, Sergey and Eric and get back with you.”
Also like what Adam wrote.
Hey dude, i think this thing is becoming a like a kid’s fight…
ur next post about Yahoo will be:
“If u search yahoo for the term: “shem*le” … omg! there is my picture at #1″
hahahah lol… i hope it doesn’t happen ….
Evil plan for Mr. Cutts
1.) Buy a wig
2.) Change your address
3.) Fix your resume
4.) Get a job with Yahoo for shitz and giggles
-AP
File the e-mail; you never know then you going to need it, especially after Jagger:)
LOL… Adam beat me to it, and did a much better job I’m sure.
PS Tell him you aren’t available, but refer him to the guy with the katrina website.
You should attempt to get their phone number and make a call. That way you can discuss things through voice instead of email.
LOL Matt. Let me write that down
White list for normally obedient, “authority” websites?
Our site, which has 750,000 uniques/month, employs 135 people, has a partnership with Home Depot contributes to Consumer Reports and many other DIY authorities – was dis-included in the Google natural search results for 5 days due to an unintentional landing page plan which apparently ran afoul of Google’s guidelines. Result was to lose about $75,000 in sales.
Question: Why doesn’t Google provide a better mechanism to resolve these situations? Here was our experience:
1. The webmaster support forum was a complete waste of time. We posted a reasonable question and received three responses in two days, none of which were helpful at all.
2. The Webmaster Tools utility, also a waste of time. We could see a bit of information about crawl rate and stats, but there was no real way to interact with anyone at Google. We submitted a “reconsideration request” but the verbiage surrounding that request said it might take several weeks for any action – and we had no way of knowing whether any action would be taken, and/or whether we would know about any action or be able to respond to it.
3. Contact info: Non-existent. We tried our Adwords reps in Ann Arbor, they wrung their hands and said they pitied us but also said they were completely powerless to do anything. What? We spend 1.5 million a year. I know Google doesn’t believe it has to treat big customers differently from non-customers, but that policy has more in common with a monopolistic utility rather than a for-profit business. We weren’t asking for a miracle, just a speedy resolution.
4. Mismatch between the “crime” and the “punishment” – I can appreciate that Google receives a zillion whining complaints each day. However, the Google response in this instance was extreme, especially given the lack of recourse.
My thinking is that Google should have a “Whitelist” for larger, normally compliant websites. In this imagined scenario, when a whitelisted site does something to trigger a Google slap, the site is given the benefit of a doubt regarding its actions and have an opportunity to correct the problem before automatically being punished.
This is just one idea, I imagine there are many others. The general idea is something along the lines of “innocent until proven guilty.” That seems to work fairly well in our justice system for individuals, why not for websites?
Finally, our website is RepairClinic.com, I’m the president and the poor sap that recommended the landing page plan in the first place. My intent wasn’t to do anything “black hat” at all. Our index of products is nearly impossible to present to individuals because they never know their part number or exactly what they’re looking for. The landing pages were an attempt to help people find what they were looking for by using the search terms they are most likely to use. Our reps in Ann Arbor completely understand our particular situation and have seen similar efforts on our site and also deemed them innocuous. In addition, I spoke with a Google rep at SES a couple of years ago and explained our approach, he also thought it should not trigger a filter at Google.
I am not looking for a personal response. Our situation is now resolved. However, the experience was quite terrible. The hardest part was not knowing when or if the situation would be resolved, and what steps would be taken or need to be taken. We were left completely in the dark and the official Google response was so poor we ended up just being flat out angry at Google. That doesn’t seem like an approach consistent with “do no evil.”
LOL, Chris Hall’s White list for “normally obedient, “authority” websites” is the funniest on Matt’s blog, while I am sympathetic to his case Google has established rules, so why should his “Whitelist” site be permitted to remain as highly positioned as it was with 750,000 uniques/month and employing 135 people while not conforming to Google’s clearly laid out rules.
In the end it all comes down to democracy as someone else is now getting the traffic and could afford to hire more employees as a result.
Luckily it was the president of the company that had decided to allow such action imagine the poor web designer getting all the flak.
Poor Matt must get constantly barraged with this type of complaint, Google should simply give everyone a #1 placing for major keywords, problem solved. – LOL
I was browsing your blog and came across this post. Seriously, this has been one of the funniest things I’ve read on the internet.
“Since you have indicated that there are multiple positions available, I’d like to recommend my friends Sergey and Larry. Both of them are experienced search engine professionals and would be a great asset to your organization.”
LOL. This was hilarious man! I’d definitely respond something like that.