[ruswick]

Why? Because the sheer magnitude is crazy. Rap Genius's traffic fell by nearly two thirds! This is a very prominent, YC-affiliated startup that is being nuked by Google. It should come as no surprise that the news is seen as significant by the HN crowd.

Moreover, I think many people are upset with the scope of Google's punishment. De-weighting RG is one thing, nuking it into the ground is entirely different, and is in my opinion unwarranted. Even searching directly for the name of the site does not yield any Rap Genius results.

If I type "Rap Genius" into Google, I am justified in expecting Rap Genius to be the first result. Period. When Google goes out of its way to effectively expunge a site from existence (to the extent that Google can expunge a site), they are doing a massive disservice to their users and are degrading the quality of their search results.

There is no reason that a response of this magnitude by Google is justified, and by issuing such a draconian response, Google has lessened the usability of their product and done a disservice to their users.

[zach]

Penalties are blunt instruments.

The whole point of this penalty is that Google cannot trust the signals that are in its index when it comes to Rap Genius's site. And it sure isn't Google's fault that they can't.

Can Google subtract out all the "naughty stuff" and decide if Rap Genius deserves to even be on the front page for "rap genius" anymore? I doubt it.

If Google's search had a category for "obvious searches" then yes, maybe they could apply a penalty as delicately as possible. But delicateness is not really the point. Dropping them down 50 spots is blunt and simple. I think everything about this approach makes sense.

[loceng]

From I what I heard the penalty is only for a month long? Still, what other practices has Rap Genius been using all this time, without being caught, in order to gain so much traffic?

[GuiA]

>De-weighting RG is one thing, nuking it into the ground is entirely different, and is in my opinion unwarranted. If I type "Rap Genius" into Google, I am justified in expecting Rap Genius to be the first result. Period. When Google goes out of its way to effectively expunge a site from existence (to the extent that Google can expunge a site), they are doing a massive disservice to their users and are degrading the quality of their search results.

Necessary reminder that Google does whatever the fuck they want with their service, and that no one is in a position to expect anything. Does it suck? Yes. Is it a predictable outcome of the free market on which Silicon Valley and the tech industry in General is built? You bet.

[dragonwriter]

> Moreover, I think many people are upset with the scope of Google's punishment. De-weighting RG is one thing, nuking it into the ground is entirely different, and is in my opinion unwarranted.

If the impact wasn't significant, it wouldn't be a disincentive to engage in black hat SEO.

> There is no reason that a response of this magnitude by Google is justified

Yes, there are reasons. The reasons are "specific deterrence" and "general deterrence".

[joelrunyon]

Cutts has said before their goal is to "break the black hatters spirit" (http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-on-search-spa...). I assume that's what they're trying to do here.

[chris123]

The response was designed to send a message. And it seems to have accomplished that.