It’s been far too long and I’ve been meaning to write an update post for the past week. You may recall that I wrote a short news story regarding Google Japan and their use of the pay-per-post service Cyberbuzz.

Basically, to give you the Reader’s Digest version (is that only a Canadian saying?), I was upset over the apparent hypocrisy of Google and their actions toward PayPerPost a few years back. It was wrong on so many levels that they would allow this to go on after their strong stance against bloggers using this same tactic.

A few days after the news broke, Google DID take action against their cultural affiliate. Google Japan, previously a PR9 site, has now been knocked down to PR5.

Wow. That’s an absolutely HUGE page rank hit. But does that really mean anything? It’s not like they’re a small time blogger selling advertising space  (where ad prices are often determined by PR). And it’s become increasingly apparent that page rank only plays a minor role in determining placement in SERPs. So, again, does this really mean anything?

Well, yes and no. Yes, because Google is publicly abiding by their own rules. They are showing the rest of the blogging world that they are not above the law. And no, since Google Japan will go on promoting their service, as PR means little to the Google Japan site. The only way this reduction will affect GJ is by reducing their Google search traffic.

I see this whole strange situation as a big publicity stunt. Think about it this way: Google wants to gain exposure in Japan whose current number one search engine is Yahoo. So they go out and buy a bunch of “followed” links, in violation of their own terms of service, which states that all paid reviews must have full disclosure and the “nofollow” attribute placed on outgoing links. The nofollow attribute… which Yahoo ignores anyway… Yahoo, the search engine they are trying to overtake and gain exposure on… Does anyone else see the issue here? They could have easily gained their exposure AND obeyed their own internal rules, bypassing this whole mess… Planned perhaps? Maybe they are just taking the Wildean maxim to heart - “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about”. But that’s probably just the conspiracy lover in me talking

I don’t doubt that more internal reprimands were handed out other than the public PR drop. I wouldn’t mind reading the Google exec emails from this little indiscretion. They would have been nice and juicy.

Here is an interesting interview with Matt Cutts by WebProNews dealing with the subject. And of course, the original news breaker, Akky Akimot’s update.

And finally, something interesting to note… CyberBuzz, somewhat unknown before this incident had to play damage control themselves. Akky stated that, according to a new press release Cyberbuzz

Do not offer to pay cash as compensation for bloggers to write blog articles.
Do not provide a paid-link program for the purpose of raising positions on SERP and PageRank.

Hah. Nice try. I’m not actually sure if they suffered the same drop in PR that was given out to Google Japan. Judging by their current PR of 5, I would guess that they probably dodged that bullet, but we will find out for sure after the next update.