4 ms·

I think NameCheap might lose out on this PR exchange. GoDaddy's excuse checks out and NameCheap lowered themselves to their level with the accusation they poste

I think NameCheap might lose out on this PR exchange. GoDaddy's excuse checks out and NameCheap lowered themselves to their level with the accusation they posted. This is very reminiscent of the slapfight that the Bing team had with Google over Microsoft possibly stealing Google's search results. In the end both companies came off as childish and petulant.

nextparadigms 15y ago
Did Microsoft's excuse check out, though?
- sp332 15y ago
  Microsoft used its toolbar to watch which results people actually landed on after doing a search. MS used this to refine their own search results, promoting pages that people tended to "end" their searches on. Google "caught" MS stealing results by manually adding an unlinked page with a unique nonsense string on it into their index. Then they installed the Bing toolbar, searched for the string in Google, and clicked on the only result. Soon after, the same result showed up in Bing. Google claimed that Bing must have "stolen" the search result because it's not linked from any other page, so there was no organic way for Bing to find it. But it seems pretty normal to me.
  - rhizome 15y ago
    But it seems pretty normal to me. This assertion appears to be supported only by your use of scare-quotes around "caught." Is there any further detail you can supply as to why Google's charge should be treated with skepticism? How else would the page have gotten into Bing?
    - kevingadd 15y ago
      His post explains how. Did you read it? Installing the Bing toolbar opted users into gathering data on search traffic (including where a search ended up). Bing used that data to add pages to their index.
    - mikeash 15y ago
      I think the question isn't how the page got into Bing, but whether that's a problem. According to sp332, Google ran their experiment with a Microsoft toolbar installed. That toolbar is reporting back to MS about what you visit, and that's how the page got into Bing. Nothing nefarious there, and not "stealing" results, but simply monitoring users.
      - cma 15y ago
        Google never complained about the page getting into Bing. They complained that Bing indexed it with the exact (phony) search term that Google did--Google purposefully didn't include said term on the page itself.
        mikeash 15y ago
        So the toolbar watched their search too. Not exactly unusual.
        cma 15y ago
        they didn't search via the toolbar
      - rhizome 15y ago
        Fair enough!
    - JS_startup 15y ago
      Microsoft's excuse ultimately did check out. That's still irrelevant with respect to my original point: it was a PR loss for them both because it revealed the ugly mudslinging sides of both companies and detracted from their images.
rawrly 15y ago
NameCheap has appeared to be "out for blood" since the opportunity arose with goDaddy's PR debacle with SOPA. And it's leaving both company's tarnishing their reputation. goDaddy supports a draconian censorship bill. nameCheap jumps in the game and does their best to kick goDaddy while their down for personal gain. The capitalistic dream in action. Want to transfer your domains to a registrar with merit and is actually against SOPA instead of trying to gain customers? Find one who was talking about how bad SOPA was before this debacle started last week.
- citricsquid 15y ago
  I'm not a customer but I noticed Dreamhost who do domains were publicly opposing Sopa in November: http://blog.dreamhost.com/2011/11/22/dont-drop-the-soap-drop-sopa/ http://blog.dreamhost.com/2011/11/22/dont-drop-the-soap-drop...

nextparadigms 15y ago

Did Microsoft's excuse check out, though?

sp332 15y ago
Microsoft used its toolbar to watch which results people actually landed on after doing a search. MS used this to refine their own search results, promoting pages that people tended to "end" their searches on. Google "caught" MS stealing results by manually adding an unlinked page with a unique nonsense string on it into their index. Then they installed the Bing toolbar, searched for the string in Google, and clicked on the only result. Soon after, the same result showed up in Bing. Google claimed that Bing must have "stolen" the search result because it's not linked from any other page, so there was no organic way for Bing to find it. But it seems pretty normal to me.
- rhizome 15y ago
  But it seems pretty normal to me. This assertion appears to be supported only by your use of scare-quotes around "caught." Is there any further detail you can supply as to why Google's charge should be treated with skepticism? How else would the page have gotten into Bing?
  - kevingadd 15y ago
    His post explains how. Did you read it? Installing the Bing toolbar opted users into gathering data on search traffic (including where a search ended up). Bing used that data to add pages to their index.
  - mikeash 15y ago
    I think the question isn't how the page got into Bing, but whether that's a problem. According to sp332, Google ran their experiment with a Microsoft toolbar installed. That toolbar is reporting back to MS about what you visit, and that's how the page got into Bing. Nothing nefarious there, and not "stealing" results, but simply monitoring users.
    - cma 15y ago
      Google never complained about the page getting into Bing. They complained that Bing indexed it with the exact (phony) search term that Google did--Google purposefully didn't include said term on the page itself.
      - mikeash 15y ago
        So the toolbar watched their search too. Not exactly unusual.
        cma 15y ago
        they didn't search via the toolbar
    - rhizome 15y ago
      Fair enough!
  - JS_startup 15y ago
    Microsoft's excuse ultimately did check out. That's still irrelevant with respect to my original point: it was a PR loss for them both because it revealed the ugly mudslinging sides of both companies and detracted from their images.

rawrly 15y ago

NameCheap has appeared to be "out for blood" since the opportunity arose with goDaddy's PR debacle with SOPA. And it's leaving both company's tarnishing their reputation. goDaddy supports a draconian censorship bill. nameCheap jumps in the game and does their best to kick goDaddy while their down for personal gain. The capitalistic dream in action. Want to transfer your domains to a registrar with merit and is actually against SOPA instead of trying to gain customers? Find one who was talking about how bad SOPA was before this debacle started last week.

citricsquid 15y ago
I'm not a customer but I noticed Dreamhost who do domains were publicly opposing Sopa in November: http://blog.dreamhost.com/2011/11/22/dont-drop-the-soap-drop-sopa/ http://blog.dreamhost.com/2011/11/22/dont-drop-the-soap-drop...