4 ms·
Wikipedia selling links for $5000
- zone411 15y agoIf the email quote from that page is accurate, then this is very blatant and the largest scheme in dollar amounts I've seen to manipulate search results. However, I will be quite surprised if Google does anything at all to penalize Wikipedia.
- _delirium 15y agoThis is a fairly common practice, I think. Linking back to recognize major donors is quite old, and people donating solely for the linkback is newer but still not that new. For example, if you look at NetBSD's donor list, some are quite clearly unrelated to technology, and are donating just for the link: http://www.netbsd.org/donations/2011.html http://www.netbsd.org/donations/2011.html
- zone411 15y agoThis is still against Google's spam guidelines, though. If they are to be consistent, I think they have to take action.
- _delirium 15y agoYeah, I agree it doesn't look too good. That NetBSD page is only really different from a "send me $100 and I'll post your link on my links page" thing (which Google prohibits) by the fact that NetBSD is a nonprofit and therefore it's a "donor list".
- GiraffeNecktie 15y agoWhoa! This is either absurdly misinformed or just a troll. It's not WikiPEDIA (the encyclopedia) selling LINKS it's WikiMEDIA, the parent organisation selling corporate SPONORSHIPS (which happen to include a link, as one would expect.) Sheesh. Flagged
- zone411 15y agoWikipedia is the flagship project of Wikimedia. I think you're nitpicking if you think there is much of a distinction on where the links are appearing.
- wccrawford 15y agoThe links are not on Wikipedia's page. They're on Wikimedia's. It's a huge difference because the focus of each site is different, no matter that they're both owned by the same company.
- zone411 15y agoBecause of how PageRank works, no, there is no real difference at all. Wikipedia's homepage and many other pages link to Wikimedia and that's how it gets its high page rank and that's why it can sell the links this way. Other links on Wikipedia are all no-follow. This is the same organization and in terms of PageRank algorithm there is no distinction. If you create a link to any Wikipedia page, it makes the Wikimedia page in question become more valuable in the eyes of Google and that's why buying the links there is worth the price.
- iamdave 15y agoIf that were the case, why is it when I look up "Page rank", wikiPedia is the first result and not wikiMedia?
- zone411 15y agoThere is no unique page about "page rank" on Wikimedia's site, so search engines that would return it as a result would be doing something very wrong. Try "job openings" in Google. I see Wikimedia as #7 in the search results, right after huge websites devoted just to jobs. Do you think it got there on its own merits and it should be there instead of, let's say, Walmart's job page? No, that is all outside links to Wikipedia giving it its high ranking.