The rel="nofollow" Attribute

made for sphinnpageoneresultsPosted by Edward Lewis, aka pageoneresults™
SEO Consultants Directory System Administrator
Orange County, California | United States

0-22 SphinnsEXTRA! EXTRA!
BREAKING INTERNET NEWS!
Sphinn Implement the rel="nofollow" Attribute

Extra! Extra! BREAKING INTERNET NEWS!Attention all Sphinners! Stop what you are doing! Sphinn have implemented the rel="nofollow" attribute on links within the What's New listings (Upcoming). This is REALLY BIG as there are two stories "rolling" right now through the community. That is GREAT news but, let's talk a little more about this...

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rel="nofollow" Table of Contents

  1. History of the rel="nofollow" Attribute Protocol
  2. Discussion of the rel="nofollow" Attribute
  3. Feel Good Exercise, a Start
  4. Content Cross Contamination - It all starts here...
    1. Example #1 on 2008-07-21 at 23:57 PDT
    2. Example #2 on 2008-07-22 at 09:40 PDT
    3. Example #3 on 2008-07-22 at 09:41 PDT
    4. Example #4 on 2008-07-22 at 10:30 PDT
    5. Example #5 on 2008-07-22 at 11:30 PDT
  5. "Hoooo, Somebody Stop Me!"
  6. Google Indexing Sphinn Upcoming?

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History of the rel="nofollow" Attribute Protocol

First, let's go back to the birth of the nofollow Attribute and what it was originally intended for...

Google and the rel="nofollow" Attribute

2005-01-18 - Posted on the Google Blog by Matt Cutts, Google Software Engineer and Jason Shellon, Blogger Program Manager

"From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel="nofollow") on hyperlinks, those links won't get any credit when we rank websites in our search results."

Formatting of the Link Relationship Attribute

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.example.com/">Anchor Text</a>

This is a joint effort by the major players in the search and blog space to curtail and/or prevent what is referred to as Comment Spam. Those search engines who have agreed to the new link relationship attribute are...

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Association through DisassociationDiscussion of the rel="nofollow" Attribute

Let's discuss "nofollow" with a little bit of depth, with Comment Spam being the primary reason for the nofollow Protocol back in 2005 January. When Google and the others announced the rel="nofollow" Attribute, I do believe the scale of link manipulation had reached a point "at that time" where something had to be done immediately while they worked out damage control solutions to combat the influence of links.

So, immediately after its announcement, many started implementing nofollow in different situations. Most did it to follow the protocol and deter Comment Spam on their properties. Others used it for funneling "juice" within a site. Others just dropped it on all links on their site for fear of being dealt a penalty of some sort.

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Lego LinksAnnouncement: Google nofollow Radar Now Online!

My own personal opinion of rel="nofollow" is not to use it for anything other than what it was originally intended for, Comment Spam or in this case, the What's New listing of Sphinn. If you use it for anything else, there may be some associated risks and/or fallout due to its misuse.

For one, you are now on Google's radar. I can just picture the engineers at Google on 2005-01-18, the day they made the nofollow announcement. I'm sure they had this really cool "nofollow map" of the Internet at the time (pre nofollow) and within minutes after the announcement, "lights" started appearing everywhere on that nofollow map, can you picture that? Almost like the power coming back on in a major city after a grid failure. If I were a Google Quality Engineer in that meeting (in charge of link detection and manipulation), I would have felt like a kid in a candy store. All these people just snnitched on themselves and look at em', they can't stop, they are still doing it today as of 2008-07-23!

Okay, now that you have "my opinion" of the rel="nofollow" Attribute, let's discuss the stuff around the link, you know, the anchor text, the surrounding text, etc. Even though the nofollow is there, does that stop Google from indexing and crawling the content surrounding the link? And if it doesn't, how does Google react to that content? Does it get "associated" with the source? Is there any form of association with the destination even though nofollow exists? What if an outside network were using a "shared" method of distributing links (Submits) to Sphinn through a closed network? What if that network was not related to yours? I have all sorts of questions!

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Orange Man BandagedFeel Good Exercise and, a Start

The addition of the "nofollow" Attribute is a feel good exercise that doesn't address the core of the problem which is content being "associated" with Sphinn. Once that topic goes on the What's New list, many different things happen that need to be explained in great detail. I'm not ready to share that information with you just yet. No one reads it anyway. I just sit here and type it for my own benefit and that of my clients. And a few select peers. Wink

Don't get me wrong, adding that rel="nofollow" in this instance is a plus (+) for Sphinn and I personally congratulate them for "acting upon" that decision. But, don't get all excited just yet! It only touches the surface. There is much more to be done.

While you are addressing all of this external abuse, you also have "major" internal issues to contend with from a technical perspective. I've uncovered some serious flaws in that Pligg architecture and its causing Sphinn content to become fragmented. It is not pulling its weight like it should because it gets "split" due to phlaws in the platformm.

I'll be back with more as I continue to assemble the rest of my research. I think I'm going to take a "quick look" at other Pligg platform users and see if they exhibit similar behavior. If they do, which I'm sure they will, who would be responsible for all of this? The creators of the platform? Or those who use it?

By the way, did the implementation of the rel="nofollow" Attribute stop the Sphamm from making it to the What's New listings on 2008-07-22? No it did not. As a matter of fact, I have successive screenshots showing the state of that What's New listing since the start of this week. It doesn't look pretty.

Here ya' go, since many reading this are "visual people" just like I am, take a look at the stuff that sits on that What's New listing and becomes "associated" with Sphinn. Forget about the nofollow attribute for a moment...

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Ho! Ho! Ho! Join us please...Content Cross Contamination - It all starts here...

Sphinn, I would strongly advise that you pre-moderate your What's New listings. If you don't, the "association" will continue even with the use of nofollow. You've basically got an FFA sitting there and it continues to be abused as of 2008-07-22 at 18:45 PDT. If I were Google, or any other quality indexer, I'd have that entire section and all related sections on my radar for filtering. I don't want that junkk in my trunkk! Think about it...

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2008-07-21 at 23:57 PDT

Nothing major to report here. Colorado Approved Driver Education (huh, what's that got to do with Sphinn and the Sphinn Network?). A Live Psychic Expert from India (are you guys and gals into Tarot Cards or something. Where is the Card Reading Room?). And, what's that? A Funny MP3 about a ten inch you know what (I'm not touching that one, nope, not with a 10 inch pole!). Smile

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! No big deal, huh? It's nofollowed. Hmmm, I wonder whose Quality Sphinn Story sat right under that one when it got indexed? Guilt by Association? Oh, and look at those Custom Avatars!

20080721T2357

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2008-07-22 at 09:40 PDT

Oh, here's a good one. I'm sure SnoopBloggyBlog appreciates his Propeller 2.0 topic submission sitting here like this. I wonder how Google "might" treat the snippet generation in this instance, any ideas? Wink

Propeller 2.0 Launches... Telefetish Phone Directory... Ditching the V...

20080722T0940

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2008-07-22 at 09:41 PDT

Oh-oh, if I were to put on me "Tin Hat", I might conjure up something like "is that Propeller story being sabotaged?" By the way, very poor taste of title selection by BradHart. In fact, I'd have a bit of a chat with that person. No Custom Avatar either? That doesn't even deserve to see the light of day.

Is it possible a dirty word filter got enacted with the SEs when that one appeared? Doesn't Sphinn have one of those? The dirty word filter thingy? There has to be a widget or gadget for that! Hehehe, check this potential snippet... Smile

Propeller 2.0 Launches... Such A P***y... With Microsoft adCenter...

20080722T0941

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2008-07-22 at 10:30 PDT

Okay, so we now have a title correction after how long? P***y. That topic should have never seen the light of day, ever! Now we have MelC who "may" end up with a snippet like this...

Microsoft... Quit Being Such A P***y... Free Adwords Voucher...

20080722T1030

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2008-07-22 at 11:30 PDT

Hehehe, poor MattMcGee. His topic "may" become indexed and "might" read something like...

e-Girls Arcade... No.1 on Google & Yahoo... Your Kids Will Enjoy...

That would be interesting, huh? I've seen it happen with your platform.

20080722T1130

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Jim Carrey from Mask: "Hoooo, Somebody Stop Me!""Hoooo, Somebody Stop Me!"

Just tell me when to stop! I have hundreds more where this came from. You should see some of the midnight and early morning stuff on weekends. The phreaks come out at night. Woo-hoo!

I'm looking forward to this Sunnday, 2008-07-27! See you at the Phunny Pharmm! Wink

P.S. Look above again. Notice anything "consistent" throughout the day? Look at those Sphinn Avatars. Apparently the system has a vulnerability there in the registration process. In fact, I've come across a few "remote" fora topics that discuss how to get around the timed features of submitting to Sphinn, can you believe that? Why would someone want to post instructions like that? What are they doing back there? I want to see!

I'd venture to guess that it is so easy, they don't even bother setting up a custom avatar and their profiles are pretty much void of anything but the minimum to get in. I also came across a topic where someone had an ad out for Top Sphinners. I wonder why?!

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Google Indexing Sphinn Upcoming

2008-07-23 at 11:00 PDT - In performing a few basic searches for the Upcoming section of Sphinn, it appears that Google "may be" in there "looking at" and "indexing" that What's New area, and I would guess all of it that now has nofollow in place, not just the first page!

Congratulations, I think you've just sent a "positive signal" to Google and the door may have "cracked open" a little bit. I'll keep a close eye on that one as I'm interested to see how that nofollow impacted Google's view of Sphinn.

But quick, get that What's New list cleaned up. Go back and remove anything that doesn't have a Custom Avatar attached to it. There might be one or two exceptions to that rule and you'll know who they are. Don't let them continue to SUCK from the platform. Try thinking Google cache in this instance and again, I'd recommend adding the noarchive directive to all pages to start with.

<meta name="googlebot" content="noarchive">

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Google Indexed Results for the Past Week as of 2008-07-23

Google Indexed Results for the Past Week

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Google Indexed Results for the Past Three Months as of 2008-07-23

Google Indexed Results for the Past Three Months

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Google Indexed Results for the Past Year as of 2008-07-23

Edward's note on this one. Notice how there is one entry for 2007-08-06 and then nothing again until 2008-07-12 or so. If I am reading these results correctly, something happened around 2007 August and Google nixed that Upcoming from their radar. Now that the nofollow attribute has been implemented, I think you've just appeared on the screen again, I sure hope so. You guys and gals working hard to keep Sphinn clean right now surely deserve it. Google appears to think so too.

Google Indexed Results for Past Year

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Google Indexed Results for All Time as of 2008-07-23

Google Indexed Results for All Time

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Sphinn Links | Made for Sphinn | The Sphinn Exposé | Sphinn Upcoming | Teenage Phornn | Sphinn Phunnies | Sphinn Phornn | "5 Easy SEO Tips" | The nofollow Attribute | Sphinner Reputations | Network Relationships | Auto Voting at Sphinn | AutoPligg | Sphinn Latest Comments | Sunnday Sphamm 2008-07-20 | Tuuesday Sphamm 2008-07-22 | Phrriday Sphamm 2008-08-01 | Sunnday Sphamm 2008-08-03 | Sphinn Sphamm - 21st Century Guestbook | The Desphunn Zone | Account Terminated | The Sphinn Zone - Who's Talking?

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Last modified: 2008-10-11T09:17:01-0700

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