Google Japan Buys Dirty Pay-Per-Post Links
Google Japan seems desperate in chasing the Mighty Yahoo! (see here for example). They are now using a tainted and controversial social media optimization method called pay-per-post, provided by CyberBuzz.
Recently, Google Japan announced a top-page redesign on their official blog, in which they added a “Google Kyuujyoushou Waado (Hot Keywords)” feature. This addition displays the 5 most searched-for keywords in the previous 24 hours. Google Japan planned the new feature to help with their tough search-share fight against nemesis Yahoo! Japan.
In the screenshot above, just below the search box section, 5 keywords are listed with links to their respective Google searches.
At the same time, there are a number of blog entries on Google’s blog widget (called “blog parts” in Japanese) reviewing this “Hot Keywords” feature, all of them strangely resembling each other.
When you search for “Google Hot Keywords Ranking” + “Blog Widget” + “CyberBuzz” in Japanese on Google Blog Search, you will see over 30 posts by bloggers writing about this new service, saying things like “I’m a part of the CyberBuzz campaign” or “You can earn some money by writing interesting stories provided by CyberBuzz”. (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4)
So Google Blog Search, which has been spammed for so long, is now spamming itself in Japan.
I have translated part of a random entry as an example:
The Google Hot Keywords blog widget [link to Google's page] can show you what is in fashion now, and what other people are interested in.
It’s appealing that you can view buzzwords from the previous day or the previous week. I am sometimes surprised to see that such words are so popular! Personally, I like the “fortune-teller” feature from the previous week’s ranking. When I click on a keyword, I am quickly taken to Google’s result page and so I enjoy the feature.
I might not have noticed them by myself, but now I understand that these things are what people care about.
I am participating in CyberBuzz’s campaign.
CyberBuzz is one of the biggest pay-per-post agencies in Japan and are known for their high payouts. (Some blog posts fetch $100 for a single entry.)
So they are now link-building using monetary incentives to try to crook their own search results in a malicious way. I think this is a waste of money and only tarnishes their reputation for fairness.
Google Japan also does business with notorious news-clipping site Gigazine, and has been running a few ad campaigns which include special customized banners. There are many article-like advertisements on the site.
These articles, which look almost the same as regular ones, have “ad” tags (“広告” in Japanese) at bottom, which are very subtle, and will no doubt not be noticed by many readers. You can see for yourself by clicking the screenshot below, and reading the (poor) explanation at the bottom of the article that the entry is in fact an advertisement.
[Update 2009.02.10] Google Japan Apologizes For Inappropriate Pay Per Post Use
via Netafull
(Proofread by Sean O’Hagan)
Author Information @akky(Akky AKIMOTO) is one of the first pro-bloggers [J] in Japan. Apart from that, he writes for Asiajin and personal blog [J]. 
[...] letzten 24 Stunden an. Um dieses Feature zu promoten, hat Google Japan sich eines Service namens CyberBuzz bedient. Letztendlich sowas wie Trigami; Blogger schreiben bezahlte Blogeintr臠e zum gew・schten [...]
[...] Akimoto at the Asiajin blog recently reported that Google Japan was paying bloggers to review a new Google widget. Using [...]
[...] Asiajin Bookmarken und wiederfinden: [...]
[...] info på: Asiajin.com och TechCrunch. Dela info om domäner och sökmotoroptimering: These icons link to social [...]
[...] dari paid links ini, Google sendiri telah ‘mendenda’ Google.co.jp dengan menurunkan nilai PR mereka [...]
[...] PageRank ed influenzare il posizionamento. Di recente però, Google Giappone è stata sorpresa ad acquistare post a pagamento per promuovere una delle sue nuove [...]
[...] הדיווחים מהשבוע האחרון שמספרים על שימוש לא הוגן שעשתה גוגל יפן במסגרת קידום אחד המוצרים שלה ברשת הפכו לדיון סוער בקרב עכברי הרשת (לא משנה שזה ייקח בדיוק 3 ימים ואך אחד לא יזכור). מסתבר שגוגל יפן פשוט שילמו לבלוגרים כדי לכתוב ביקורת על אחד הווידג’טים שלהם. [...]
[...] Todos los datos, en Asiajin [...]
[...] Google has slapped down a penalty on Google Japan for publicly and somewhat arrogantly paying bloggers to write about them and link to Google Japan [...]
[...] out that google.co.jp had been buying “Pay-Per-Post” links from “Cyberbuzz” according to Asiajin. Matt Cutt commented on Twitter and said “Google.co.jp PageRank is now ~5 instead of ~9. I expect [...]
[...] A fun story caught my eye today as Google penalised themselves for buying links. [...]
[...] ne oldu? Google Japonya şubesi gitti tanıtım methodu olarak bunu seçti. Sonra resmi bloglarından özür dileseler de, internette insanların diline düşmekten doğal [...]
[...] lengkapnya bisa dibaca disini dan [...]
[...] From http://asiajin.com/blog/2009/02/09/google-japan-buys-dirty-pay-per-post-links/ [...]
[...] Japan is in hot competition with Yahoo! for search traffic. Share and [...]
[...] qui reste premier au Japon, Google.co.jp est passé à l’attaque en utilisant un système de pay per post pour tenter de changer la donne. Cette pratique étant désapprouvée par la maison mère, Google a [...]
[...] Akimoto at the Asiajin blog reported last week that Google Japan hired Cyberbuzz, a company that specialises in online [...]
[...] Google日本分部的人为了推广自己的服务，通过当地的付费博客帖子服务购买了一些付费帖子，当然里面都有付费链接。这件事被Asiajin博客首先报道，2月9号上了TechCrunch，并迅速在SEO圈子里发酵。 [...]
[...] to Google Blogoscoped, Akky Akimoto wrote on the Asiajin blog that Google Japan was paying bloggers to evaluate a new Google widget through a pay-per-post [...]
[...] If their definition of pay-per-post is true, and if Google penalized their Japanese office for using pay-per-post, I must apologize for my first report. [...]
[...] widget via pay-per-post assistance named Cyberbuzz. The content was written by Akky Akimoto on Asiajin blog. More WebProNews [...]
[...] widget caused the website to be busted down from PR 9 to PR 5. Many thanks goes out to blogger Akky Akimoto for discovery and English translation of what might described as a big, corporate party foul. When [...]
[...] To check out the original post that uncovered the whole shameful episode, check that out here [...]
[...] I came across this on the Asiajin blog. Start reading here, then follow the related posts: Asiajin – Google Japan Buys Dirty Pay-per-Post Links. [...]
[...] מעט נכתב ברשת על המקרה של גוגל יפן, בו למעשה גוגל יפן שילמה לבלוגרים כסף כדי שירשמו על [...]
[...] the issues like Google Japan’s pay-per-post incident, Google headquarters might be thinking more direct control by having more communicable local [...]
[...] of link-menu) Japanese users than proactive (searching) western users, however was involved with unfortunate promotion mistake (2), (3). This short time recall still can be decided by that feature’s performance to lure [...]
[...] 個人的には Asiajin で書かれた記事「Google Japan Buys Dirty Pay-Per-Post Links | Asiajin」がこれから世界に広まっていくのかどうか興味津々です。 [...]
[...] widget caused the website to be busted down from PR 9 to PR 5. Many thanks goes out to blogger Akky Akimoto for discovery and English translation of what might described as a big, corporate party foul. When [...]
[...] Η Google Japan, χρησιμοποίησε την ίδια ακριβώς τακτική για να προωθήσει το redesign που θα γινόταν στην αρχική [...]
[...] their own terms of service. They say paying for blog posts are bad and prohibited. Guess what? Google paid for blob entries in Japan because they’re desperate. They only apologized because they got [...]
[...] to the president on 2009-01-01. Just after taking the position in February 2009, Google Japan had a big marketing runaway around pay-per-post usage, which, I think, makes Google HQ more sceptical the need of Japan office independence, though that [...]