Ansearch – A New & Innovative Australian Search Engine
or Something More Sinister?
Judge for yourself!
Part Two of a Detailed Seven Part Series.
Prepared by: Melissa Martin, Diane Scott & Peter McNamara with contributions from many industry sources.
Note: Despite emails requesting comments on this article to Ansearch CEO Dean Jones, Ansearch Media relations employee Louisa Williams & Optum CEO Peter Jermyn, neither company has chosen to respond to address the concerns raised.
Ansearch: A Detailed Seven Part Series
- Ansearch Case Files: Background Information & Introduction
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Under Fire
- Ansearch Case Files: Questionable Domain Name Registration Tactics
- Ansearch Case Files: Discovery Spreads
- Ansearch Case Files: The Domain Dispute Resolution Process
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch & Associated Domain Names
- Ansearch Case Files: Ansearch Contact Information
Ansearch Comes Under Fire
Although, it is unclear exactly where things began to go wrong for the Ansearch group, it can be speculated that the money involved was an exceptionally strong motivator to reach the performance targets set by Optum at all costs.
The Question of Search Engine Caching & Copyright Content Usage
Things began to unravel when it was noted that Ansearch was caching websites and displaying copyright company information with an altered form and URL, producing duplicate content in other search engines. It should be noted that every major search engine, Google included, does caching, but invariably the Robots Exclusion Protocol is used to prevent endless reindexing and cross-indexing of such pages by other search engines. Even for Google, the question of caching has caused quite a stir over the years and a quick search for a term such as *google copyright infringement cache* will lead you to many articles.
In contrast however, Ansearch follows a method that allows the three "feature" pages (cached, details & sitemap) to be indexed by other search engine robots.
When these results are found in other search engines and the links on these pages are followed by the user, the resulting traffic is monitored by funnelling it through Ansearch's own click monitoring scripts on the way to the expected site. This may significantly skew the traffic results presented by Ansearch.
Concerned business owners started to worry about the ethics of Ansearch’s methodology, wondering what would happen if the Ansearch pages turned up ahead of genuine company sites in mainstream search engine listings. As it turns out, there is every reason to be upset. In numerous cases Ansearch pages are turning up ahead of the websites they are supposed to be indexing, promoting Ansearch in the results of other search engines. However, duplicate listings in the results of major search engines are apparently just the tip of the iceberg.
Next: Ansearch Case Files: Questionable Domain Name Registration Tactics >>
Discuss this series at Search Engine Forums
Relevant Links:
Strange names registered by Ansearch associated entities (chiefly Goodbrook Holdings Ltd.)
|
