Complaining To Google About Link Farming

[cheesedude]

Greetings!

I know that Google has a form that search users can submit to report abusive practices such as link farming, spam, etc. But has anyone done it? Can anyone say that reporting such infractions does any good?

My main competitor has the #1 rank in Google for a number of search terms (but isn't #1 in Yahoo or MSN). What that website did is create a whole slew of other websites that link back to the main one. Just counting I noticed probably at least 30 websites which are nothing more than billboards promoting the main site (there may be more). Not only do they have a bunch of websites pointing to the main one, but they also have another website under another domain name with different graphics and different formatting, but the exact same content. Exact same content!

I think what they are doing is called "link farming" (please correct me if I'm wrong). To be honest, I would love nothing more than to see the king dethroned. They are, in my opinion, engaging in abusive practices that are enabling them to maintain their top position and I don't think it's wrong of me to want to report it to Google. Plus, to be honest, I need all the help I can get.

I just figured I'd ask to see if anyone else around here has reported abusive practices to Google and if it did any good before I spend the time doing this.

Thanks for your feedback. Also, if anyone thinks that what I am considering is unethical, feel free to speak up.

[sysice]

You can try, I haven't had much luck with pointing out the obvious.

http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

[cheesedude]

Originally Posted by sysice

You can try, I haven't had much luck with pointing out the obvious.

http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

OK, I am going to submit a complaint.

I found about 75 sites all registered and hosted by the same company all linking to each other. There are even more than that. Most of the sites are garbage and serve no other purpose but to link to the main sites. Clearly a case of spam if ever there was one.

I hope Google takes action. That would be sweet.