Google mistakes own blog for spam, deletes it
I'm guessing the Custom Search Blog
team hasn't been checking it too much. For one thing, as of this
writing, the last entry was 7/17/2007. Because of that, the blog was
accidentally marked as spam, and then released ... after which it was
promptly snapped up by a cybersquatter.
The change was first noticed by the Google Blogoscoped Web site, which noticed that posts on the Custom Search Blog had been deleted and replaced by a strange comment from someone identifying himself as Srikanth.
"Google Custom Search, is the wonderful product from Google which many webmasters have been looking and dream for," Srikanth wrote. "Also Google Custom Search is integrated with Ad-sense, which means make money while keeping users on your site for longer time with custom search engine.... Good Luck for all the Custom Search customers(??)."
"Blogger's spam classifier misidentified the Custom Search Blog as spam," a Google spokesman said via e-mail on Wednesday. Typically Google notifies blog owners when it has spotted content associated with spam on their Web sites to give them a chance to clear up any misunderstandings.
"Google Custom Search, is the wonderful product from Google which many webmasters have been looking and dream for," Srikanth wrote. "Also Google Custom Search is integrated with Ad-sense, which means make money while keeping users on your site for longer time with custom search engine.... Good Luck for all the Custom Search customers(??)."
"Blogger's spam classifier misidentified the Custom Search Blog as spam," a Google spokesman said via e-mail on Wednesday. Typically Google notifies blog owners when it has spotted content associated with spam on their Web sites to give them a chance to clear up any misunderstandings.
Unfortunately, since the team didn't respond in time, the blog was disabled , and the URL made available to the public. At which time it was snapped up. Google has since realized its mistake, and the Custom Search Blog is now back.
