“would hope they wouldn’t be stupid enough to get real greedy and do something to…”

Uh, they routinely allow AdWords ads for sites that specifically, distinctly, and solely exist for the sake of providing hidden and black-hat worthy links to a plethora of insurance, legal and other sites. Just do a search for “free page counter”. Then if you choose just about any of the AdWords advertiser offerings, fill in the form for a free counter – then look at the source code that’s generated…

When I repeatedly bring this up with Google they claim that the sites those links go to have “legitimate” optimization so those links going to them isn’t so worrisome. Excuse me, but the fact is that a “legitimate” site can be severely penalized for far less. And I have a plethora of other examples where sites use blatantly black-hat methods that Google ignores complaints about.

SO as far as I’m concerned, Google is already in the business of doing what it frakkin well pleases, some of which is less than ethical.

But it’s great to be able to participate in the dialogue around these topics. And ultimately, it reminds me that mine is purely one more opinion in the ocean. That in turn helps me remember it’s never too serious to become stressed about because in five years it will all be replaced by something else.
Alan Bleiweiss´s last blog ..Six Rules for Custom eCommerce SEO

Thanks for the conversation, Alan.
Frank Reed´s last blog ..So Many People; So Much Time

I think it’s subjective, as far as which is better. Personally, if I have to look through 50 individual listings or instead, I can go to a comparison site there are times when I want to do one and times when I want to do the other.

Since Google is “supposed” to be the provider of unbiased information, then it should be up to the person doing the search to decide. But if Google unnaturally forces their “local business” entries along with a little map above all but the first three organic results, that skews the process.

If I, as an end user, want to go to the Google Maps view, I will choose to do that. Blended results are bogus because they only show the first X from the maps view anyhow…

But I do understand that at times it is more convenient.

The bottom line however is that currently Google gets to control what shows and when. They own the search engine so they have that ability. If they are really going to be in the mortgage business, how they reach prospective customers will be a serious issue.
Alan Bleiweiss´s last blog ..Six Rules for Custom eCommerce SEO

The reality is that those aggregation sites would not have much of a business model if not for the engines anyway so it’s somewhat of a Catch 22 I suppose.

As always I reserve the right to be completely wrong!
Frank Reed´s last blog ..So Many People; So Much Time

ANYTHING else should be banned. Period. They’re a frakkin SEARCH ENGINE that is supposed to be about leveling the playing field.

The day they started showing Local results maps of individual companies, however, they broke the level playing field rule when talking about those companies that offer aggregation services. Like Storage Facilities. There are a boat-load of web sites that have their entire business model on aggregating information on storage facilities, and Google’s local business results that show up at the top of the SERP harms those aggregation sites.

Same would apply to any lead generating business model and already does for many, beyond what Brian already points out…

So it’s already a muddy issue.
Alan Bleiweiss´s last blog ..Six Rules for Custom eCommerce SEO