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Could Google Be A Fly On The Wall?
By Beth Strukelj | October 13, 2007
You know the old saying, “I wish I was a fly on the wall”. An interesting finding just as you start to agree with others (against your will) that the sandbox theory was…well, just a theory. Domain name and company held anonymously for the respect of our client.
A brand new domain name was created on 9-13-2007, in the midst of designing, constructing the pages, lining up the products and making it squeaky clean, the website magically appeared in Google’s index. In less than a few hours!
Pages were published to the site on September 25th and a memo sent out to the sponsors to review the site around 3:00 pm. By 7:00 pm that night their error handler recorded a request for a robots.txt file. It showed Google (the only visitor to the site) had made their first visit.
The site was never submitted to the search engines nor had any links been established. The only entities that knew about the new website were the company and their sponsors. On September 24th the company had purchased an SSL certificate for the site .The first cached date from Google is September 26th. Was it the purchase of the SSL gave it away? Is Verisign partnered with Google?
Optimization hasn’t even begun and they rank #1 on Google for 3 keywords and 1 ranking #6
So did Google send over a fly spy?
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October 14th, 2007 at 11:46 am
It seems that after the last major update that the Google sandbox theory took a back seat to the missing in action page rank update. I agree with your post and our own site is a testament as well. We were ranking for extremely competitive terms on a national level in the SEO industry with a URL that just turned one this month. Now there are over 4000 terms we rank for and over 948 unique. So, the sandbox has definitely been nixed for something more effective in the ranking algorithm. It’s all about authority and I think that the Verisign link put it over the edge via the buddy system.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Beth,
To answer the question posed by your title, I would say, “Maybe.” If Google already logs a staggering amount of data on user behavior through its search engine, Gmail, Google Desktop, Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google toolbar, and everything else under the sun they utilize to harvest signs of our behavior, thought patterns, and personalities, then it’s not too much of stretch to imagine a 500-ton-gorilla on the wall, let alone a fly.
Yours in Paranoia,
Paul
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I agree with Paul. Google can track so much data that it makes you wonder what all the information is use for. However, I do see it as a plus that you launch a new domain and still maintain some of your rankings that you worked for on other sites.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Thanks for the responses. I know Google collects data but how far are they going to go get that data (without being logged into Google services)?
With a new domain appearing in Google within a few hours is phenomenal. It makes strategizing a new website a little easier then the ‘sandbox’ theory that was in place or it isn’t?
Beth