Interesting software tool?
 

I downloaded and played with this for a few minutes this morning, Page rank tool. I'll play with it more when I get back from the gym, but it did seem useful in the few minutes that I played with it.

I would NOT use it to check rankings at Google. They will block your IP and probably ban your domains. They have done it with zillions of WPG users and target other ranking checkers too. It's a major PITA (read: it's nearly impossible) to get Google's permission for automated queries, especially when you can't use the API. All these ranking tools out there do not have and never will get Google's permission.

Really, damn, no shit, I had no idea. :(

IP banning I can understand, but domain banning I can't. Say I want to bring my competition down. That #1 spot is bugging me for months now. I can't get to reach its spot. So I can just get the WPG, start hitting it hard and my competition will fall? Besides how does google know which domain's position I am checking? I am checking my position for "porn". I rank at 3rd spot. How will google know which domain to ban? No way.

McSpike,

Every request from "position checking" software contains the domain..

eg - HotBot/Google:http://www.hotbot.com/default.asp?pr...YOURDOMAIN.COM

As Sebastian said these programs can be dangerous.. and are often built by people trying to make a quick buck from people that dont understand the damage they can do.

Google watches the queries coming to it's datacenters, and has specific tools available for legit software, that can then be tracked back to the original programmer.

DD

DD, what you posted is for checking link popularity and not checking position. Plus Google will only inspect, if there are more than 1000 requests per day per IP. Who's an idiot enough to go checking your own link popularity 1000 times/day? There's no other query where your domain would be present so I still see no way of Google banning domain. Blocking your IP, sure, but domain? No.

If you are checking positions for a certain keyword Google has 0 idea which domain in particular you are interested in or even further which is yours. So it cannot just ban because it has 0 idea what to ban. Unless you are constantly checking your link popularity. Yet who's to say you are the owner of a domain you are frequently checking?? I could be constantly checking dangerdave.com just to make sure you as my competition didn't get too far with LP. Next I see is your PR going grey. This way one could easily kill the top players, wouldn't you say? You think Google would allow this to happen? Banning IP yes, to stop the user, but banning a domain? Not this way.

Yes McSpike I am aware that the link I posted was a link pop link.. I was not aiming to show anything but to illustrate a point.

If you think we are wrong go right ahead :)

Umm then how do you know where you are placed if you aren't telling it what domain to look for???

In order to check a postion? you need to give the tool two bits of info.. the keyword and the domain you are looking for.

If you are just returning search results and looking then why are you using a tool?? just go and look at the results!


No I wouldn't say that , and I wouldnt post it.. and I think posting negative shit like that only reflects badly on you.

DD

It's not that hard to discover which domain(s) are checked with automated queries. They do not need more than a handful of queries to figure it out. And it does not help to spread the checking over different IPs nor doing only a few checks daily. The sole fact that they currently don't bash 'small offenders' does not mean they can't do it, and it does not mean they will never do it.

DD, haha, sorry mate, nothing personal, just used your domain as an example (and it did the trick). It upset you as much as it would me if anyone pulled this kind of dirty trick in REAL on me with Google. I wouldn't be pissed at the one who pulled the trick - world is full of this kind of tricks when a lot of money is on the table. I'd be so pissed at Google for being an idiots for implementing a system that can harm innocent sites that easy. And because this could be abused the way I described I am sure Google doesn't do it at all! You can rest peacefully no one will kick you down with that. Besides if it was possible only not so smart people wouldn't figure this one out on themselves, so I pointed out nothing new. I wanted to point out the dangers of such a banning, which, I am 200% sure, Google is aware of. Btw, my domain is planetclimax.com and if anyone has WPG, go ahead. I am top ten for "free sex galleries" "free galleries" "sex galleries". Lets prove a point - you can't ban a domain with WPG with position checking only. Google can't figure out what domain's position you are checking because what WPG does is only fetches SERPs on Google and then does the analysis internaly. For checking your position MANUALLY for any keyword you don't need to tell Google your domain. Only thing it needs is the keyword. Then you can count which spot you are on. WPG and all the rest of the programs do the same. When they fetch first 1000 results or whatever they are set to check they check for your domain's position internaly and make analysis on your computer - nothing is passed back to Google. So Google can't find out which domain is yours. And if it did, think what could be done if evil webmasters start using this stuff to hurt you? Google is smart. MANY spam complaints go unheard. It's because Google won't just ban anyone reported, but will only do it to the obvious idiots. Otherwise I could set up some nasty shit and point it to some domain I want to ban (ok not me personaly, just an example here ;)) and Google would bite the bait. Not gonna happen :)

Btw, I don't pull dirty tricks on my competition, never did, never will - I try to beat it by beaing smarter - not that I am smart SEO - yet. I think Sebastian is way smarter, but I just don't completely agree with what he said. That's why I replied as I thought we can make it a constructive debate. I hope we still can :) I hope someone can prove me wrong or right so I won't be satisfied with my answers only. :)

AHA! I see now what you mean Sebastian. Queries can be compared to eachother and domains that come up in ALL are the "suspects"? You can spoof client info so Google sees it as IE for example. You can do it with every query so it's different every time, making it look like a different user, change IPs and who's to say this was all 1 single person doing it? I don't see how only a few queries could point to your domain. There are way too many same domains showing up on those to be able to single out one. I dunno. Doesn't convince me. There must be one reason why Google doesn't target "small" ofenders - because they cannot clearly point to their domain and point to the owner of that domain - it could be someone else pulling a dirty trick.

Google bans IPs and domains when they are sure that the automated queries were sent by the domain owner and/or the SEO firm involved. You can't harm your competition with WPG and similar tools.

Not bothering with small offenders is a matter of common sense. First, it's not worth the efforts for Google. Although it's automated, it takes machine time, storage and maintenance. Second, spoofing client info makes no sense when you only send a handful of queries every once in a while. They may or may not log these activities, but they don't act currently. As soon as you touch the threshold, chances are pretty good they'll catch you, regardless whether you're spoofing or not. As a Googler, I'd have more fun tracking down high sophisticated TOS violations by the way.