Thanks for clearing that up for me. This is a tough business. The bottom line is, a competitor, with Googles help, can get you banned from the results. This is unfair and only rewards “evil”

1) Google actually does make attempts to let you know if you have been hacked via Webmaster Tools…assuming, of course, that it can detect said hack.

2) The hack message itself is usually pretty clear. It lets you know what happened and where they found it.

So there is a warning system via Webmaster Tools.

The one thing that I’d partly agree with that has been suggested is a grace period to allow the hacked party to fix the hack, depending on what the hack is. If it’s just a hack for SEO reasons (e.g. what happened to Beth), then just punish the hacker and give the hacked party a warning and time to fix the thing before punishing. If it’s a more insidious hack (e.g. some form of malware), I think all sources, direct or indirect, should be removed. No point having that crap spread.

Are you saying that even if a commercial site is a good resource on information, and an educational site links to it, that educational site will be penalized, as in Answers.com?

That is truly crazy. Doesn’t the internet involve “commerce”? It just looks like G is trying to slowly eliminate any commercial results unless they are all that crappy paid for results like adwords and pay per click, which I would never even look at.

That is the “commercial spam” that needs to go. IMHO. I mean come on, look at those sites, they have bad content, and don’t even offer anything useful. Good NLS sites typically have news, articles, pics, free forms, files, etc.

Stop punishing commercial sites, which often provide better info than the wikis, just because they are also a business. Who is making these rules up? Over the last few years, I have seen what appears to be a concerted effort to make it more and more difficult for a business to rank well in NLS.

At the same time, I have seen spammier and spammier commercial sites dominating paid for spam ads at the very top. Since I am now a Google stockholder, I am going to bring this up at shareholder meetings.

Let me get this straight, if some A hole hacks into my site, Google will remove my site? This means that any competitor could singlehandedly destroy my business and Google will help!!

That is ridiculous. Can’t Google at least trace back the hacker and destroy him? Can’t Google send a message to webmaster tools telling me I have been hacked, or at least set up a “hack master tools”, for example, so my infant son isn’t forced to starve?

Having Google inform you that you have been hacked (and where) would be appreciated, as opposed to just ‘disapearing’ from the listings.

I couldn’t agree more, Beth. I think they don’t worry about traffic or how high-profile a blog is–they just try to hack them all.

On the somewhat-bright side, if you do blog about your experience, I’ll bet that those articles will be really good resources for other unfortunate people that get hacked too.

Just wanted to say i like your new small icon from domain name..

Bye..