Google to demote poor web sellers via search

Google said yesterday that it plans to change the way it ranks search results so that dodgy dealers will find it harder to appear high in the listing via their search algorithms.

This change started after an article in the New York Times, detailing a Brooklyn based online seller of eyeglasses, called Vitaly Borker. Borker said that he had deliberately shouted at customers to frighten them in order to get online complaints, as this actually worked in his favour with Google search results.

He basically claimed that Google search couldn't tell the difference between positive and negative postings about his business. The more people complained, the higher his store got listed on the searches and the more money he raked in from unsuspecting punters.

In a blog posting titled “Being bad to your customers is bad for your business,” Google said that it had revised its algorithm so that it could detect Mr. Borker and “hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide extremely poor user experience.”

Mr Borker seems to be a nasty piece of work, having harassed customers so much that he was arrested and charged with aggravated harassment and stalking.

Unfortunately for Mr Borker, he appears to have not been able to keep his mouth closed, so Google have latched onto his loophole in their system, and are shutting it down.

KitGuru says: Some people will always find holes in the system, but making a meal of it online doesn't seem that smart.

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