Comments on: Google Redesign or Stealthy Affiliate Program?

By: Tom Trenka

Tom Trenka — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I seem to remember running across this one (or something very similar) a while ago when I was having major DNS issues on my home network…I want to say that what you’re looking at is a modded version of Google search for mobile devices, but now I can’t seem to find the equivilent…and it’s definitely a proxy issue, not the fault of the Goog.

By: Joe D'Andrea

Joe D'Andrea — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mike - what is the full link for the search results page (after searching via Safari)? Does the path start off as /custom instead of /search perchance? If not, then it does indeed sound like the link is being rewritten somewhere along the way. Perhaps a reverse proxy at work? More info on Google AdSense for search.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

JY: Money! Here is what I get:

HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 19:02:48 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.31 (Unix) FrontPage/5.0.2.2623 mod_ssl/2.8.19 OpenSSL/0.9.7d mod_perl/1.26 PHP/4.1.2
Vary: Host
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.1.2
Content-Type: text/html
X-Cache: MISS from proxy2.anchorfree.net
Connection: close

So the X-Cache thing… does that mean they are basically caching their doctored google.com homepage and serving it up every time?

By: SATISH BHARDWAJ

SATISH BHARDWAJ — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not a Google fan although I use free google blogging service. But I see no difference between the google portal from the day 1. It has always been like this. every website portal is crowded with a lot of garbage. Not Google. I wish I had made business like Google has with this site. Whatever Google does it must be doing something right.

By the way what is Mike Industry and how does it get listed on the search Engine. and who are you criticising others for slf promotion. I think you are the best self promoter without having to promote. who wants an iPod. Come on people must be desperate. Keep your iPod, bro. we don’t need it.

By: Joe D'Andrea

Joe D'Andrea — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yep, there's a proxy in the mix alright. You might try contacting AnchorFree directly at +1 (877) UNWIRE1. Perhaps they can give the straight dope.

By: JY

JY — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sounds right. According to this, anchorfree is giving you your WiFi

By: JY

JY — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Keep your iPod, bro. we don’t need it.

Oh, I need it.

By: Joe D'Andrea

Joe D'Andrea — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oh, I need [an iPod].

Ditto! Mine unwittingly drowned … in my pocket … during a rather stealthy thunderstorm … while bicycling … in the Caribbean.

(Don’t ask.)

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Satish: What exactly are you talking about? I personally don’t really care if AnchorFree is subsidizing the cost of providing free Wifi by using AdSense. That’s fine with me. It’s just that it wasn’t exactly transparent. I would think that if Google approved of this sort of thing, it would be clearly called out on the search results page. It isn’t.

Furthermore, the bigger question I brought up is that if this is INDEED cool with Google, why shouldn’t all ISPs do it? I know if I were Comcast, I would. Do you know how much money that would divert their way? Quite a bit.

By: Collin

Collin — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Keep your iPod, bro. we don’t need it.

Well, I don’t need it. It’d be a nice replacement for my dying RioVolt so if Mike wants to give it away then I’d be happy to help him with that.

Satish, I think you missed something here. Self-promotion certainly has it’s place. What they are doing with the search results is wrong for many reasons. For one, you hit a trusted web site and don’t know that it’s really an untrusted server and a ploy to steal a few bucks from Google. What about when we click to log into Gmail, can that be trusted? That is the issue as I see it, not a matter of self-promotion being evil and wrong.

By: Roger Karlsson

Roger Karlsson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

To me this looks like a violation of the Google Adsense program. Has anyone notified Google about the issue?

Bro, I do need that iPod :)

By: Dustin

Dustin — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

two words.
Conspiracy Theory.

Haha.

By: Eric Schwarz

Eric Schwarz — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

That is pretty strange how easily Google can be “hacked” to get rid of the header graphic. That explains why a few times, a header graphic wasn’t loading (I redid the code and then it was fine).

As for your situation, I still find it weird that someone is perhaps making money off a search that you didn’t particularly choose.

By: Ryan Latham

Ryan Latham — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ok now I see what you are talking about. In that case I see some major issues. You’re paying for Comcast’s services thus you should be allowed the freedom of choice. However with a free service it’s easier for them to tell users that they are limited to X as opposed to Y.

If you’re getting something for free, it is less likely you will complain about it. Right now it is them trying to pay some bills if Comcast did that I would look at is shady.

By: William Q.

William Q. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

OK, so I stumbled across this discussion, not because I was at this blog conference but because I think I have seen this done elsewhere and was wondering about the practice. I saw this on an access point in downtown rankfurt germany, but i can’t remember the ssid to mention it here. But I am making a list of places that rewrite attempts to reach google, etc, to their own page in order to make a few bucks. I am not so sure it’s a bad thing if it works ok, I mean, if you are getting the wifi for free maybe the hotspot owners should make a few bucks? How about other things…like rewriting Amazon affinity program IDs, etc? Has anyone seen this, or heard of it? please tell me if you have.