Go Compare Elsewhere! Google slaps aggregator
The wires are hot out there this morning and the keyboards buzzing as it appears that Google has slapped, that is, removed from it's search results all mentions of GoCompare.com.
The UK insurance comparison website had featured widely across the top of Googles search results for all sorts of insurance related terms, before yesterday!
Word on the street has it that GoCompare was indulging in very dubious link building practices. Ior those of you who aren't familiar with search engine rankings, the positions that you appear in the results are largely determined by the number of one way links you can build pointing into your website. These links should however, be on theme!
If you carry out a
backlink search on Yahoo for Gocompare.com you'll see links from some very strange and dubious blogs, which tends to support this theory.
Google is quite clear in it's webmaster guidlines and elsewhere about purchasing or acquiring links through nefarious practices.
The same thing happened to GoCompare last year but because of the number of links from authority sites the penalty only lasted a short while.
Interestingly, as a response GoCompare.com appears to have upped it's spend with Google adwords in a bid to retain traffic and please the gods.
Perhaps Google should do the same thing and SLAP all the other insurance comparison sites that occupy the first page of Google for car insurance and other keyword terms - they are all at it as well, some of them getting links in much worse ways than poor old gocompare. Just go and compare backlinks from the top five results for car insurance - these companies employ huge teams of people whose job it is simply to build links and buy links.
Labels: Go Compare, GoCompare.com, Google, Internet Marketing
Google Arrested - We Hope It Had Valid Car Insurance!
Google Visual Information is Arresting!
Insurance Companies must be rubbing their hands in glee at the introduction of
Google Maps Streetview. The 360 degree high definition view of your house from outside the front door, is a valuable tool for both loss adjusters and claims assessors for virtually every type of insurance cover.
Combine it with the already impressive aerial views from Google Earth and Insurance Companies can add very valuable visual attributes to their already impressive Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Claims assesors can for example look at the state of the roof of a building before heavy storm damage and in
car insurance, there is no more drawing of maps to describe the scene of an accident when making a claim, or playing with toy cars in front of the District Judge to explain the accident if the case goes to court - simply all sit around Google Streetview and pinpoint the testimony.
So while on the subject of Google Streetview, have any of you seen the cars going around the country? If you have, it is highly likely that that moment has been captured for posterity and your image is now truly global!
Look what one guy witnessed in Northern England -
Google Arrested!Chris Whiteoak was walking down the road in Bradford when he noticed Google car being pulled over by the police … here’s the story, in Chris’ own words:
"I’m from Bradford, United Kingdom. I was just going on my lunch break at work today and i noticed a black car that had stopped at a red light. It had a "google" sticker on the side, and a large camera "thing" on the top. I decided to pull out my camera phone to take a pic, but just as i did a police car pulled up right behind it and put on it’s lights and officer inside was motioning the car to pull over.
I then realised why, as the car was in the lane to go straight ahead, which was marked "bus / bicycle / taxi only", before i could take another pic, the google car sped off, went nearly the whole way round the block in busy Bradford city centre (the police still following now with lights and siren on!), before eventually pulling into a car park… which just happened to be the car park to the old police station!!!
When i eventually caught up i did manage to get a picture of the police car and the Google car pulled over in the car park, after which the officer got out of the car and started asking me not to take pictures! lol
Also, I’m hoping when they put the street level view for Bradford on google maps, am hoping there will be a cheeky pic of me taking a pic of the google car, which i can then upload to google earth my pic of the google car taking a pic of me (if that makes sense?!? lol) :-D "
And now, the those arresting photos:
Well guess what Chris? - Bradford has just come on line at Google Streetview UK and Yes, you are on it!
Let us know
if there’s a picture of you on Google Streetview and thanks Chris!
Labels: claims, Google, Insurance companies, loss adjusters
