Here's what happens when Google starts acting dumb

[xecutable]

Without trying to bore anyone, plus I am in Barcelona and don't have enough time to post I will make the long story short.

A website called bonuslistings.co.uk . So this guy copies the first sentence of my excerps and then surrounds it with bet365 banners and links to me. Since he copies my exact paragraph I consider this duplicate content, theft and you name it.

On top of this the damn website is a scraper site, providing 0 value to the end user. As usual the site doesnt have a contact form so u can't really contact that webmaster. I did get his whois but I am not gonna go on this like that. The links on his website and the ones I submit to Google are these:

bonuslistings.co.uk/bet365-euro-2012-qualifiers-live-streaming-schedule-tuesday.html

bonuslistings.co.uk/bet365-euro-2012-qualifiers-live-streaming-schedule-friday.html

The sentences that are copied can be found on the homepage of my website and well as the whole articles.

Google initialy showed that it has removed this content but then "fixed" it and sent me this:

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

We have received your DMCA complaint dated 9/5/11. At this time, Google
has decided not to take action based on our policies concerning content
removal. As always, we encourage you to resolve any disputes directly with
the owner of the website in question.

If you pursue legal action against this site that results in the removal
of the offending material, our search results will display this change
after we next crawl the site. If the webmaster makes these changes and you
need us to expedite the removal of the cached copy, please submit your
request using our webpage removal request tool at
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals

Regards,

The Google Team

Of course a premade templates are "never' rude so I replied:

Hi,

It's a scaper site for crying outloud. A site that gives the user 0 value and uses my content to make money. How's that not a violation of Google's policies.... Have you tried contacting a website that doesn't even have contact details or an about page?

Regards,

Guess what their response was... no not the same template was it...

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

We have received your attached DMCA complaint. Upon recent review of the
website(s) mentioned in your complaint, we were unable to locate the
allegedly infringing content on the page(s) in question. If this matter is
still a concern, please reply to this email with detailed information to
enable us to locate the allegedly infringing content.

Regards,

This time I specifically write what's copied and where it can be found:

All right, check out the front page of e-sportbets.org. The two posts with Bet365 logo would have an Introduction Message. The first sentence says "More Euro 2012 qualifications on Tuesday, September 6th 2011, which promise to be interesting" That's my first sentence on the excerp on the first article.

The first sentence on the second article says "Looking for a place to watch Euro 2012 qualifiers on Friday September 2nd 2011? Bet365 gives you the opportunity to watch live and free right from your PC.Looking for a place to watch Euro 2012 qualifiers on Friday September 2nd 2011? Bet365 gives you the opportunity to watch live and free right from your PC." I wrote that as well therefore it's a duplicated content, therefore it was stollen from me. Once again those are excerps you can see on the front page of my website e-sportbets.org

Lastly, I thought Google wanted users to submit scraper sites no? Well this is one.

Regards,

Their response..... no not a 3rd time of the same old crap:

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to us.


At this time, Google has decided not to take action regarding the
following URLs based on our policies concerning content removal. As
always, we encourage you to resolve any disputes directly with the owner

of the website in question:

bonuslistings.co.uk/bet365-euro-2012-qualifiers-live-streaming-schedule-tuesday.html
bonuslistings.co.uk/bet365-euro-2012-qualifiers-live-streaming-schedule-friday.html


If you pursue legal action against this site that results in the removal
of the offending material, our search results will display this change
after we next crawl the site. If the webmaster makes these changes and you
need us to expedite the removal of the cached copy, please submit your
request using our webpage removal request tool at
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals

Regards,

So that's pretty much it. Last time I heard Google wrote a post wanting users to submit scraper sites, but I wont be replying to someone that obviously can't even write 3 paragraphs of personalized message.

I wanna thank bet365 for taking this matter seriously and contacting the webmaster of the website almost instantly, asking him to explain the situation.

That's about it, hope I haven't bored anyone and this shows that sometimes Google isn't really concerned about what u r getting as an end result.

[felku]

There is no way a thread like this can bore anyone, I find this information valuable because maybe something like this can happen to anyone on this forum. Thanks for share your experience. One more thing this thread shows that google is very hypocrite. "content is king " yeah right there are lots of spammy sites around and google do nothing. A few are penalized but many of them are dominating serps.

[Anthony-Coral]

Just found that he has Betfred links too.

Just setting the affiliate account to inactive right now which prevents access by the affiliate and any payments then I'll email him for an explanation as 365 have done.

[Dominique]

Don't use the DMCA service - it costs them legal fees. So they don't like to do it. If it's a scraper site, just submit it as spam site instead and you'll get much better action.

[GCG]

Dominique can you pls provide us the google url where one can report the scraper site?

I have one which is a blogger blog with no contact info nor affiliate links.

Thanks a lot !

[Dominique]

Log into the Webmaster tools dashboard and click the “Report spam in our index” link on the right hand side.

[GCG]

Thanks Dominique but I seem not to have that link you are referring to.

I reported the site with a DMCA complaint specific for Blogger sites.

Hope it will be approved.

[ALEX777]

Here is the link: http://www.google.com/support/webmas...y?answer=93713

[Dominique]

Everytime you use DMCA you expect the recipient of the complaint to use a lawyer in your favor - and they more often than not ask you to get your own lawyer because of the expense. If you do and win, they will remove the site asap.

Other than that, submitting a spam complaint usually gets reasonably fast action from google, without involvement of lawyers.

I usually contact the host of the offending site first - and more often than not the host has removed the site. Saves a lot of time.

[xecutable]

Everytime you use DMCA you expect the recipient of the complaint to use a lawyer in your favor - and they more often than not ask you to get your own lawyer because of the expense. If you do and win, they will remove the site asap.

Other than that, submitting a spam complaint usually gets reasonably fast action from google, without involvement of lawyers.

I usually contact the host of the offending site first - and more often than not the host has removed the site. Saves a lot of time.

Really? Most if not hosts now a day require DMCA, and it's an even bigger DMCA form that you have to fill out. It's done so the client doesn't sue back, which comes again to filling out DMCAs. Takes longer too as it involves 3 sides now, u the thief and the hosting company, where Google does not contact the thief they just review.

I can't really see why would they go dumb on technicality here. They can easily move my inquiry to the spam section or whatever and ban it with a reason "scraper site" something they have asked us all to submit if we see any. That's like me contacting an affiliate program about sports betting, but instead by mistake I get their poker support. Wouldn't they transfer me to the right department? Most likely if they wanna do business.

I still find this has been pretty ignorant from Google. Cause I will tell you this, if they were like Yahoo with 3% share on the market, they would be kissing me for submitting such a report and helping out the community stay clear of such worthless websites. Or if the sumbission party hasn't been myself but NASA.gov for example.

What happened to "we treat everyone equally".

[Dominique]

Really? I must have done this 6 or so times - contacted the host with proof of plagiarism and the offending site was just shut down.

But maybe things have changed - it's at least two years or more since I have had to do that.

With pure scraper sites, filing a simple spam report with google has generally done the trick.

Google has very little "customer service". Spam reports are still the easiest way to get action. Making noise on their webmaster forums also can get action at times.

I am not defending google, I am simply being practical and try to get things done. Trying to change google is pretty hopeless IMO. I still hope that consumers will eventually realize that Bing is a lot better and switch. When google loses popularity, that's when we may see changes in their customer relations.

[xecutable]

Really? I must have done this 6 or so times - contacted the host with proof of plagiarism and the offending site was just shut down.

But maybe things have changed - it's at least two years or more since I have had to do that.

With pure scraper sites, filing a simple spam report with google has generally done the trick.

Google has very little "customer service". Spam reports are still the easiest way to get action. Making noise on their webmaster forums also can get action at times.

I am not defending google, I am simply being practical and try to get things done. Trying to change google is pretty hopeless IMO. I still hope that consumers will eventually realize that Bing is a lot better and switch. When google loses popularity, that's when we may see changes in their customer relations.

I second that, seeing customers go, has been one of the strongest motivations to push for a change.

[Smoking]

Bing is gaining ground on Google or is it Google losing ground... Google has been going downhill !

Keep in mind some "off shore" servers your letter about spam means Nothing !