[mvandemar]

This is very much a critique against Google, but more towards the pass that they keep giving Jason. Jason is most definitely not playing the game better than most, and in fact his violations of Google's quality guidelines are in many cases way more blatant than other spam sites, and are definitely more high profile... yet for some odd reason Google refuses to penalize them. Other sites belonging to honest webmasters get penalized on a daily basis, yet Jason appears to be immune.

[olefoo]

I think this is an object lesson in the value of social skills and conference going. I doubt that Calacanis would be able to keep this circus going if he hadn't cultivated some excellent relationships inside Google. I can't really blame the Googlers involved; it's hard to knowingly wreck the business of someone who's been a good friend, even if you know they deserve it.