How Google can and does screw small business
One of the worst things that could happen to 360|Conferences, happened the week leading up to 360|iDev. Another site on our shared hosting server, had some sort of vulnerability, and let in a script kiddy who hacked our index files. Weak sauce for sure.
The first time we caught it. The next we got an email from Google telling us about it, and bam, we’re listed as malware.
We fixed the problem, (3 times, thanks to our hosting company not detecting the problem, :( ) and that wasn’t enough. When your site is marked by the Goog as being an “attack site” Safari, and Firefox (probably IE I guess) all throw warnings up and do their best to keep users from entering your site.
what could be worse for a developer conference, than it’s website the week before and during a conference? mmm Not much. Attendees couldn’t download the schedule or the session description, without trusting that Google was wrong and that we weren’t an attack site. That sucks!
We’re still trying to get things right, our Hosting company has re-submitted our sites for re-scan, we’ve done it, we’ve even tried redirecting to blogpost sites, it’s been partially successful. Oh and according to Google’s webmaster tools site, “Please allow several weeks for the re-evaluation process. Unfortunately, we can’t reply individually to reconsideration requests.”
It’s kinda weak that Google can flag a site as malware, and in a matter of hours, it’s black listed, and unavailable to most (or all) browsers. Yet getting “reconsidered” can take several weeks, and they can’t be bothered to respond individually, to help the company who’s business they’re impacting to solve the problem as fast as possible.
What really sucks, I don’t know how to get around it :( we’re planning to move our sites to a hosting partner that we can use wordpress on, since blogger is the suck, but that doesn’t lessen Google’s impact on our business whenever they choose to act.
Weak google, really really weak. Guess causing harm to small businesses, isn’t included in “do no evil”
March 9th, 2009 at 9:42 am
John, I'm sorry that we've had to flag you as malware – but you're what we consider collateral damage. Google is in charge of maintaining order within the universe, and of the billions of sites we have to analyze and keep tabs on…sometimes we get false positives.
When you grow 360 Conferences to Google Size – you'll understand…
March 9th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I don't know how to respond, LOL
March 9th, 2009 at 11:15 am
The fault here lies more with the hosting site then with Google. That's why security should be a high priority.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:27 am
I agree mostly. The fault for the hacking is the hosting company. 100% I totally agree. However Google can flag us in a matter of days (without even bothering to speak to us mind you), and it "takes several weeks to un flag you, and we won't speak to you about it" so now that we're clean, and malware free, we're still screwed. That's all Google, not taking responsibility for their role.
We didn't opt in to have google govern our content. Safari and Firefox both listen to google, though we never agreed for Google to be involved. Since they've taken it upon themselves to govern, but don't want to be responsible for the impacts it has on people.
It sucks that Google has the authority to dictate what's safe, but not willing to help innocent victims rectify things.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Yeah that's similar to being put on an email blacklist, too, maintained by a third party. Maybe they should have a system to allow businesses to register to prove their authenticity and then give them faster response times.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Yeah exactly. Google has taken it upon themselves, and doesn't provide a mechanism to "fix" the problem once they've marked you. I'm ok if Google wants to be the police, but they owe it to the community to make it as easy to be unmarked as it is to be marked. "Several weeks" is harmful to our business. If Google isn't going to make it easier to fix, they should let sites opt out of being tracked as malware (which would kill their entire offering of course)
It's definitely a crappy situation, and having no power to act is the worst part.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
This is exactly why I don't trust, or take advice from these companies that act so unprofessionally. Companies like GoDaddy, Google, etc. have entirely too much power, and don't know how to use it. Sure, they try to do good by blocking or disabling sites that are potentially bad, but at the same time, they don't do the research into the sites they are blocking, nor do they offer a way to clear your name. This is exactly like SpamHaus if they block your legitimate mailing list because somebody marked the email as spam instead of deleting it.
If GoDaddy would have thought your domain hosted spam or malware, they would have disabled your domain (of course, offering you no easy way to get it back). Google marks it as spam in Firefox (yet another reason why I really don't like FireFox). At least more professional companies like Yahoo offer an easy way to get your site off the list in a matter of minutes, not weeks.
Sorry, but the Goog has a habit of abusing their powers that people have entrusted in them, but the geek population just follows them blindly. I don't understand it.. I really don't.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:42 am
I completely agree. I'm quickly becoming a google hater over this. It's clear google has been given/taken too much authority and doesn't know how to be an upstanding net citizen with it. I'm really hoping @mattcutts can help us out, but guessing it's another "Don't speak to the little people" thing so we won't know.
It makes me wonder if people would opt out of being spidered by google, in exchange for not being under their thumb. Definitely sucks that they're free to interfere with business how and when they like.
I really wish I knew more lawyers, cuz this type of thing definitely feels actionable.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:56 am
I've been using MediaTemple's Grid Service and I've found it to be flexible and cost effective. Of course I don't have the traffic or business critical uses you have and my blog is through WordPress. Maybe you should check it out and consider a switch?