Google sends a strong message about webspam
Google has long had rules designed to discourage websites from "deceiving their users" by presenting one set of content to be spidered, then redirecting the user to different content when they click on the site. Initially, this was designed to prevent web spam from porn sites and the like. I'd heard that Google had "delisted" certain sites from their search engine for violating this, but it was always small sites with little traffic.
Now, Google seems to be sending a loud and clear message. In a posting on his blog, Matt Cutts, Google's "Gadget Guy", indicates that they have removed the German home page for BMW from the Google index and will be doing the same with the German site for Ricoh.
While there remain many incentives for webmasters to try various webspam options, this may send a message to some (at least at the more established brands with more at risk) to play by the rules.
Now, if they could only figure out how to do something about trackback spam on blogs....
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