Nigritude Ultramarine

June 4, 2004

Embed:

Update: The contest is over, and this entry did pretty well but didn't win the initial prize. So the best purpose this page can serve is to direct you to The Hunger Site. Go give it a click.

Update 2:With one day remaining, it looks like this page will will win the contest for July. See more on the contest in my follow-up post.

I've always had a pretty low opinion of the Search Engine Optimization industry. Though there are of course legitimate experts in the field, it seems chock full of people who are barely above spammers, and they taint the image of the whole group.

That being said, I do watch what they do from time to time, especially as they've become enchanted with the power of blogs, both from a comment-spamming perspective as well as their evny of bloggers' PageRank.

But they've been doing something interesting of late that I'm actually curious about. An affiliate network called DarkBlue and a forum called Search Guild have started SEO Challenge, a contest to see who is the first Google result for the (previously unlinked) phrase Nigritude Ultramarine. Everyone from link spammers to legitimate optimizers has popped up to enter the contest, displaying the requisite contest entry image (see below) and crossing their fingers.

seo_image.pngI suspect, though, that those of us who've made content even when there weren't bribes involved have an advantage. For all the back-and-forth about how Google is or isn't evil, the end result of PageRank is that it's a hell of a lot more work to fake your way into being a top result than it is to just have high ranking as a fringe benefit of just being a person who loves writing. That's a good thing.

So, in order to prove that real content trumps all the shady optimization tricks that someone can figure out, and because I figure I deserve an iPod at least as much as the Star Wars Kid, I'm entering the contest. Do me a favor: Link to this post with the phrase Nigritude Ultramarine. I'd rather see a real blog win than any of the fake sites that show up on that search result right now.

4:33 PM | Tagged , , , ,

131 TrackBacks

because anil's my friend from mamamusings on June 4, 2004 10:46 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine That is all.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from anil dash's daily links on June 4, 2004 10:49 PM

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude_ultra... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine: just helping a brother out from BeatnikPad: Bagatelle on June 4, 2004 10:58 PM

... Read More

Blogs vs. SEO Industry from joereger.com on June 4, 2004 11:02 PM

Alright, Anil, here's my link: Nigritude Ultramarine. Anil believes that web logs and original content can combat the best efforts of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry. I Read More

Social Stuff from Robertopia on June 4, 2004 11:06 PM

What the hell. What's good enough for Liz Lawley...Nigritude UltramarineAnd yes, when I was young and my mother asked me, "If your friends jumped off the Empire State Building, would you follow them?" I always answered, "Yes."... Read More

http://notes.torrez.org/2004/06/_im_testing_to_.html from notes on June 4, 2004 11:06 PM

I'm testing to see how well TypePad does title-less posts. C Language Tutorial For Cocoa Making An Operating System Faster Delete pop mail with a PERL script. I can't believe I hadn't set up CPAN on my G5. It Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from 20-20 on June 4, 2004 11:38 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Google SEO Wars from illusioned.org - hesam panahi on June 4, 2004 11:47 PM

If there�s anyone in the contest that I know who should win this award (probably because they�re the only one that I even remotely know), it�s Anil Dash. Although this might not help you out that much Anil (but then again I�m sure every bit counts), he... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Link Harvest on June 5, 2004 12:19 AM

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude_ultra Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from dj on June 5, 2004 12:44 AM

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude_ultra... Read More

http://www.americandigest.org/sidelines/archives/001564.php from SideLines on June 5, 2004 12:45 AM

Instead of spending his time saving Six Apart from their disastrous business decisions over the license to Movable Type, Anil Dash is issuing a call for more NIGRITUDE ULTRAMARINE on the web. Now, as was the case in the Six Apart license fiasco, Anil h... Read More

http://www.michellejones.net/archives/sideblog/001226.php from on the side on June 5, 2004 2:08 AM

Because Anil said so: Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

No hagan caso from Bit�cora Tremendo on June 5, 2004 2:09 AM

no creo poder afectar el resultado en lo m�nimo, dado el nivel de desatenci�n prestado a la frase Nigritude Ultramarine o a ninguna otra frase en esta bit�cora Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from prolific.org quicklinks on June 5, 2004 2:20 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine. Go Anil.... Read More

A little girl on a bike with an ipod mini from A Whole Lotta Nothing on June 5, 2004 3:13 AM

As I was walking home this evening, a little girl was riding her bike in the middle of the street. She still had the training wheels on as she wobbled and struggled to peddle. It reminded me of when I... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from There Is No Cat on June 5, 2004 3:21 AM

I suppose he's trying to prove that clean semantic code, proper writing, and being linked to (ideally on merits, but since there are no merits to be judged when it comes to Nigritude Ultramarine, he'll settle for Google-bombing) are the best approach t... Read More

SERPS from linklog on June 5, 2004 4:37 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine. I said I'd never do it, but Anil has a point.... Read More

"Nigritude Ultramarine from Neil's Smaller World on June 5, 2004 4:39 AM

Now Anil is taking part in the Nigritude Ultramarine SEO competition. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from alive in kyoto on June 5, 2004 6:55 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Nick Bradbury on June 5, 2004 7:07 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine, because Anil wants an iPod. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Workalone on June 5, 2004 7:48 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine The man wants an iPod, who am I to stand in his way. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Rogi - Alive And Direct on June 5, 2004 8:29 AM

Linkerty link towards the Nigritude Ultramarine iPod cause. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Eightlines Comments on June 5, 2004 9:18 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine: a new paint swatch? Nah, a phrase that the Search Engine Optimization industry is using as a competition to see who can get that phrase to #1 in Google. Interesting concept, the above link details why I'm posting... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from McGee's Musings on June 5, 2004 9:34 AM

And why shouldn't he have one? This reminds me of the blog games a while back on seeing how far we could get a meme to propogate. Read More

http://www.macadamiaranch.com/blog/2004/06/nigritude_ultra.html from macadamiaranch on June 5, 2004 10:11 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine Read More

nigritude ultramarine from studio2f on June 5, 2004 10:25 AM

SEO optimization contest.. nigritude ultramarine I figured I’d give it a whirl. First prize is a Sony LCD and iPod mini for the site that can get google’s #1 pagerank for the terms nigritude ultramarine. More on nigritude ultramarine here.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from onotob on June 5, 2004 10:58 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Linky Links on June 5, 2004 11:15 AM

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude_ultra... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from savedelete™ on June 5, 2004 11:46 AM

Nigritude UltramarineNigritude UltramarineNigritude UltramarineNigritude UltramarineNigritude UltramarineNigritude Ultramarine confused?... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from .Avery Blog on June 5, 2004 12:06 PM

TITLE: Nigritude Ultramarine URL: http://dotAvery.com/blog/archive/2004/06/05/1299.aspx IP: 64.85.10.251 BLOG NAME: .Avery Blog DATE: 06/05/2004 12:06:45 PM Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from A Gallimaufry of Links on June 5, 2004 12:22 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from We Are Not Sheep on June 5, 2004 1:01 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

This is for you, Mr. Dash from Sit Down and Relax Weblog on June 5, 2004 1:05 PM

To help improve the google rank of my beloved blog-crush Anil Dash, whom I lovingly call Mr. Dash, I am linking his post as Nigritude Ultramarine.... Read More

Anil Dash from mikel.org | Michael Boyle's weblog on June 5, 2004 1:12 PM

wonders what will happen when a regular blogger competes with SEO types in a contest to see who rises to the top in a Google search for the previously unlinked phrase, "Nigritude Ultramarine." I'm curious about the results myself.... Read More

http://www.ryanpark.org/archives/000104.html from ryanpark.org on June 5, 2004 1:22 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine, because Anil wants an iPod.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Cuz We Said So on June 5, 2004 2:31 PM

Anil Dash (veep of Business Development for Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type) explains.... Read More

I hate SEOs from Signal Fade: Walker on June 5, 2004 4:35 PM

I hate search engine optimizers, as we may or may not all know. Now there is a search engine optimization contest going on. If you enter, you have to get... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Chasing the Dragon's Tale on June 5, 2004 6:08 PM

This one's for you, anil. I hope you win BIG! Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from halfass on June 5, 2004 6:19 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine was my grandmothers favorite liquer when she lived in Lebanon.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine from The Last Minute on June 5, 2004 7:29 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine Read More

weakend from Collin vs. Blog on June 6, 2004 1:44 AM

It's been a slow weekend, both here and on the ol' aggregator. A handful of remainders I've been meaning to get rid of but haven't had the energy to turn into a paragraph, much less a post: Nigritude Ultramarine, of course. Shaviro on Reagan. Quest for... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Joi Ito's Web on June 6, 2004 2:11 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine. Here you go Anil.... Read More

Google makes it interesting from Dave's Weblog on June 6, 2004 2:59 AM

A bit of an experiment I guess. Nigritude Ultramarine I guess I should give a little bit of explination on why I just did that... It is all about 'google juice'.. When you type in a search term to google, it know what sites are the most popular for tho... Read More

Link for Anil from Runcible - A not so young geek's semi-illustrated primer on June 6, 2004 3:15 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Erik Benson's Morale-O-Meter on June 6, 2004 3:40 AM

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude-ultramarine... Read More

Helping Her Get An iPod from whatevernevermind on June 6, 2004 4:02 AM

This is geeky. Please disregard. Nigritude Ultramarine. Read More

DynAPI 3.0 Beta from Delimiter on June 6, 2004 4:10 AM

I haven't been paying attention: DynAPI 3.0 Beta is out. And still actively being developed! I get a bit nostalgic looking over the feature list; it was tinkering with DynAPI (version one) that sparked my interest in client-side web development... Read More

Time to do my part from Cruft on June 6, 2004 4:12 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Lynne Whitehorn-Umphres on June 6, 2004 4:21 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine linked from the trapezoidally ubiquitous Jim McGee This phrase doesn't hold a patch to Boromax Frit if you ask me. In fact, Boromax Frit would be an absolutely super name for a mighty thewed, semi-barbarian hero(ine).... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Lynne Whitehorn-Umphres on June 6, 2004 4:31 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine linked from the trapezoidally ubiquitous Jim McGee This phrase, though, doesn't hold a patch to Boromax Frit if you ask me. In fact, Boromax Frit would be an absolutely super name for semi-barbarian hero(ine). Might of thew... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Merodeando por la enredadera on June 6, 2004 4:38 AM

Coincido con el diagnóstico y me parece que vale la pena el intento de demostrar que puede más el contenido honesto y la comunidad blogger que las tácticas sucias de optimización del posicionamiento en Google. Así que... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Applied Abstractions on June 6, 2004 5:22 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine. Because bloggers beat search engine optimizers whenever they want to......... Read More

gaming the engine - nigritude ultramarine from meta-roj blog on June 6, 2004 6:30 AM

mostly in response to this comment. It is not your content that is your advantage, but the audience your content has created. Most people will not become icons with large followings who can just make a statement on their site... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Comprar piso, hipoteca, locura on June 6, 2004 8:08 AM

Me uno a la campa�a de Anil, v�a Merodeando para hacer ganar a un blogger el concurso de Nigritude Ultramarine. Forza blooger versus los oscuros seos (aunque dentro del gremio hay de todo).... Read More

nigritude ultramarine from Particles on June 6, 2004 9:25 AM

Nigritude ultramarine, and a 'pod for Anil Dash.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from When Knitting Was a Manly Art on June 6, 2004 9:49 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Martin's Linkdumps on June 6, 2004 10:07 AM

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude_ultra... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from cacheop on June 6, 2004 10:40 AM

Google as a platform for contests: Nigritude Ultramarine.... Read More

This is pretty funny... from Education/Technology - Tim Lauer on June 6, 2004 11:09 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine a contest to see who is the first Google result for the (previously unlinked) phrase Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Search Engine Optmization from sn00t on June 6, 2004 11:11 AM

Anil would like to win an iPod. Sounds pretty cool to me. He needs a link with the (previously-unlinked) phrase Nigritude Ultramarine. Which ...

Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from ::WHATSOEVER ;) on June 6, 2004 11:39 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine good luck.... Read More

much brighter than and significanly different from from Peace Dividend on June 6, 2004 12:18 PM

I think Solar Funk might have to be my new DJ name. (Nigritude Ultramarine is be pretty good, too.)... Read More

HELP MY SON. :-) from Mom On the Alert on June 6, 2004 1:23 PM

I don't understand this exactly. Or maybe, I just don't want to take the time to read the whole thing. I'm not quite sure what we are doing but here goes.... Link to this site: Nigritude Ultramarine Mike, if I... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from karmaville on June 6, 2004 2:23 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine. Never mind the man behind the curtain. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from bartsspace on June 6, 2004 3:14 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine: Just because... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Links on June 6, 2004 3:40 PM

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude_ultra... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from ptalk on June 6, 2004 3:50 PM

What the heck is Nigritude Ultramarine? A challenge to see if people can outwit Google and cause their website to be ranked the highest when someone searches for 'nigritude ultramarine' (which had no links before the contest started). Reminds me... Read More

Enlaces Variados de un Domingo from XeoWebLog: Posicionamiento en Buscadores on June 6, 2004 3:57 PM

Hace 3 semanas escrib� las variables de la url de google y las variables de la url de Yahoo!. En relaci�n a esto googleman�a lanza ahora una secci�n sobre la url de google donde podemos encontrar posiblemente todas las variables que usa el gran buscado... Read More

nigritude ultramarine from AkuAku SF on June 6, 2004 5:52 PM

Because Anil really needs an iPod Nigritude Ultramarine. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from The Chronicle of Paul on June 6, 2004 7:25 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine Here I got linking to Nigritude Ultramarine. Notice, I even added a nice alt tag to Read More

Anil is Ultramarine from Kokochi on June 6, 2004 11:51 PM

Especially when working late at night/morning at the office. But he should get recognized for it.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from kdlb-links on June 7, 2004 12:06 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine. Why? for the ever-cool Anil and his quest to get an ipod. :)... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from small-fry on June 7, 2004 12:33 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

The Jimmy Carter Library can't be wrong from R Mutt from Hulver's site on June 7, 2004 2:21 AM

Efficient things, including the waterless urinal. [BX :o]
Nigritude ultramarine: link-farms and bloggers compete to see who can influence google most. [:o BX]
Dolls house arcade [M :o]
Blog gender gap smaller than thought, blah blah mena... Read More

http://www.rhapsodic.org/archives/2004_06.html#001848 from rhapsodic.org on June 7, 2004 2:23 AM

lets open the floor to a good physics discussion, shall we? how long will it take for my refrigerator motor... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Gen Kanai weblog on June 7, 2004 2:45 AM

Go Anil! Nigritude Ultramarine: Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine... from Blog-Fu on June 7, 2004 8:00 AM

I really don’t want to do this. First off, I’m not against Anil getting an iPod. That’s fine. But I somewhat feel that it’s a case of the rich getting richer. Because of his social status, blogsphere-wise, getting first seems... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from taking the red pill on June 7, 2004 8:14 AM

Anil Dash's Nigritude Ultramarine is worth this post, I guess. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Glimpse of a Grrl on June 7, 2004 8:34 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine (Found at Missa's)... Read More

/go, go google bomb/ from texturl on June 7, 2004 9:01 AM

Can a blogging' google bomb beat out other forms of search engine spam? Find out at Nigritude Ultramarine.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine! from My 2p on June 7, 2004 10:34 AM

Because he asked so nicely: Nigritude Ultramarine... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from neuroblog on June 7, 2004 12:23 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine — because Anil told me to. Clearly Nigritude Ultramarine has a lot to offer the world, but I'm sure it won't be long before George Bush bans it! Ah, playing with SEO, gotta love it.... Read More

Wouldn't A Dream About David Hasselhoff Actually Be A Nightmare? from anything but ordinary on June 7, 2004 1:00 PM

Hey, if dooce dreams about him, he can't be all bad right? ;) Nigritude Ultramarine 'Nigritude Ultramarine' is a basically a nonsense term. A company is using it to see who can move it to the top of Google's search.... Read More

Fine. I'll Give in to the Pressure from Zoot's Blog on June 7, 2004 1:33 PM

So I have answered this 9 million times in the last 24 hours on other people's blogs. Since I still dont have the intestinal fortitude to recap my weekend (let's just say that Junkie will NOT be asking me to... Read More

Real world math from Geekward Ho on June 7, 2004 1:35 PM

Work= Lots of time Painting= Lots of time Packing= Lots of time Me= Not so much time Aieee.... Six days 'til the move. 139 hours. 8,340 precious minutes. Now, if only I could start freaking out like this when I'm... Read More

http://www.rhapsodic.org/archives/2004_06.html#001849 from rhapsodic.org on June 7, 2004 2:26 PM

damask backgrounds Nigritude Ultramarine its been too long since ive posted a picture of my dog, so there you go... Read More

Search for Nigritude Ultramarine from Five Live Links on June 7, 2004 3:00 PM

And you'll find out there are a lot of people who care deeply, scarily deeply, about how pages get top rank at Google... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from kwc blog on June 7, 2004 3:00 PM

Nigritude Ultramarine (Anil Dash is a MT developer, so I cast my vote for him)... Read More

Nigratude Ultramarine! from Rain City Story on June 7, 2004 6:28 PM

I owe ya Anil, so here it is. My post about Nigratude Ultramarine. Follow that link if you want to know what the hell I'm talking about. It's a good read. Read More

Geeky post over Nigritude Ultramarine from What the f*** are you banging on about on June 7, 2004 8:43 PM

[Lange oninteressante uiteenzetting over SEO (Search Engine Optimization)] [Uitleg over het gedoe rond Nigritude Ultramarine] [Veroordeling van blog- en wikkispammers] Zo, de bloggersplicht weer gedaan.... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Good Blimey! - Home of Matt Burris on June 8, 2004 12:57 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine. That's the word that is going to be used to find out just how good SEO really is. Scammers, spammers, and legitimate webmasters will all compete to see who gets the best PageRank from Google. Anil is doing a neat experiment t... Read More

Go Anil! Go! (Nigritude Ultramarine) from M�r �rlygsson on June 8, 2004 2:31 PM

Here's to hoping that Anil Dash wins the Nigritude Ultramarine google-bombing contest.... Read More

This is Amazing from Crooked Shack on June 8, 2004 3:40 PM

I was reading nigritude ultramarine on Anil Dash's weblog and after following some links ran across this bit of old news but extremely funny news. These are the links for two personal weblogs that happen to have posted about tv... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Pomp and Circumstance on June 9, 2004 1:54 AM

So this company called DarkBlue sponsors this contest for people to game google, as it were, to get the number 1 hit on a search for the terms "nigritude ultramarine". This contest has brought out folks from all over the... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine �Ƃ͉����H [SEO] from McDMaster's Weblog on June 10, 2004 12:27 AM

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20040609-00000003-wir-sci �^�C�g���ɂ����w���Ȍ������AGoogle �Ńg�b�v�ɏo�����l�ɏܕi���������Ƃ��� SEO �R���e�X�g�������ł��B ���܂��ɂ��o�J�o�J�����Ėʔ����̂ŁA������x�Ɂi�H�j�Q�����Ă݂܂��B ���Ȃ݂� nigr... Read More

Mechanicalize... from caught in the web on June 10, 2004 10:41 AM

...something idiosyncratic is today's card. Conceived in the late 1970s, these cards predate the technical advances that ushered in a completely new ways of working and creating. Me`chan�ic`al`ize v. t. 1. To cause to become mechanical. (the free dicti... Read More

Anil Dash shakes up the SEO Challenge from FORRET.COM Blog on June 10, 2004 12:26 PM

Wow, this is a nice surprise. Anil Dash, from Six Apart/Movable Type/TypePad, decides to enter the SEO Challenge 3 days before the first milestone, and with a little help from whole bunch of bloggers jumps to position 1 just a day late. Read More

My Mom Liz Did This from Lane's Blog on June 14, 2004 6:24 PM

My mom did this: Nigritude Ultramarine. That's all. Read More

My Mom Liz Did This from Lane's Blog on June 14, 2004 6:33 PM

My mom did this: Nigritude Ultramarine. That's all. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine revisited from prolific.org quicklinks on July 5, 2004 1:54 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine. (Apparently the contest is ongoing, go Anil.)... Read More

Nigritude SEO Ultramarine Competition from Neil's World on July 5, 2004 6:33 AM

Hopefully, this link will help Anil win the second round of the SEO competition. Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Scam City version 7.0 on July 8, 2004 12:58 AM

Anil Dash wins the Nigritude Ultramarine contest and shows that blogs can defeat the SEO industry and a Google PR7 can equal an iPod. Read More

Anil Dash wins Seo Challenge from Tangible Thoughts on July 8, 2004 9:26 AM

TITLE: Anil Dash wins Seo Challenge URL: http://geekswithblogs.net/tariq/archive/2004/07/08/7800.aspx IP: 66.226.14.70 BLOG NAME: Tangible Thoughts DATE: 07/08/2004 09:26:44 AM Read More

Anil Dash wins this month's SEO challenge from A. S. Bradbury's Blog on July 8, 2004 12:08 PM

Anil Dash has won this month's SEO challenge. Thousands of people have been competing for top position in Google for the search string Nigritude Ultramarine. It seems that Anil has won thanks to the kindness of other bloggers willing to help out a nice... Read More

Anil Wins the Nigritude Ultramarine Contest from Move the Crowd on July 9, 2004 12:08 AM

I was happy to see that Anil Dash won the second round of the SEO 'nigritude ultramarine' Google challenge. For some reason Goolge's love affair with weblogs still fascinates me. It trips me out how easily my posts, especially on... Read More

Nigritude Ultramarine from Bobby Maisnam � Blog on July 9, 2004 5:28 AM

Nigritude Ultramarine - Single Post Wins Google Contest [from Wired.com] Very interesting article. Anil Dash won the second, and final, round of the two-month SEO Challenge, which called on webmasters and site owners to use any method at their disposal... Read More

The Man Who Belongs from filchyboy on July 9, 2004 7:55 PM

Anil believes this post by Hunter is a decent critique of Anil's win at the SEO contest. Hardly.... Read More

Google PR Checksum PHP, C and Pascal available from Marketing Fan - Internet Advertising and Marketing tricks on July 10, 2004 6:05 AM

The day has come finally - people not only deciphere the Google PR checksum algorithm, but also published it for free. That could mean that Google might change it soon - on the other hand - for what? Alexa and... Read More

La blogosfera gana Nigritude Ultramarine from Noticias de Bitacoras.com on July 16, 2004 11:09 AM

En Xeoweblog: "Un buen n�mero de enlaces de blogs han hecho que gane sin esfuerzo el m�s competido de todos los concursos SEOs organizados hasta ahora. Comenz� hace s�lo dos meses y la p�gina de Anil se apuntaba con un... Read More

The Power of Influencers Who Blog from WillPate.org on July 18, 2004 10:02 PM

If there was ever any doubt that bloggers are powerful influencers, here are a few recent stories to drive the point home. Anil Dash recently won a contest held by some Search Engine Optimizers (the snake oil sellers of the... Read More

Thinking about GoogleBomb, AnchorText, DomainNames, SEO, etc. from Blind Turtle on July 24, 2004 8:56 PM

I learn, I learn, I learn. Yesterday I posted Anchor Text Explained which mentioned an article I'd read discussing anchor text. Today I'm reading about the winner of the SEO challenge and about Googlebombs. These two seemingly different articles... Read More

It Ain't Where Ya From... from Negro, Please: Back in Black on August 23, 2004 1:58 AM

It's Where You're At. A book review. Read More

Nigritude Ultramar from Chasing the Dragon's Tale on November 3, 2004 2:06 AM

This one's for you"at... Read More

The Best Indian Business School Blog from Nilesh's Weblog on November 9, 2004 12:47 PM

Welcome to the Nigritude Ultramarine of the Indian Blogosphere. Sponsored by Google, ISB has introduced an online contest to find the first site in Google for the phrase "The Best Indian Business School Blog". The Best Indian Business School Blog is no... Read More

The best Indian Business School Blog from Chinwags from Abu Dhabi on November 15, 2004 10:00 PM

For Indian Bloggers, here comes the Nigritude Ultramarine. A contest that was recently restricted to bschool websites has been now opened up to non-bschool members. On November 25, 2004, The Poseidon team will check rankings for The best Indian... Read More

Blog Spam and Parasites from Aaron Johnson on November 20, 2004 3:45 PM

So I run a couple blogs and like many people I haven't solved the blog spam problem yet (even MT-Blacklist only works some of the time and it's a losing battle). There obviously have been alot of people trying to... Read More

More Google Ranking Fun from Don't Back Down on November 21, 2004 4:25 PM

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73 Comments

I think I'll pass on this one.

eric | June 5, 2004 2:53 AM | Reply

Hi Anil

I read your about page and think your aims are cool. I wanted to
comment about your opinion on the nigritude ultramrine contest though.
I signed up for a typekey thingie but was not able to comment on your
blog because I do not have your typekey registration.

background on me:
I am one of the moderators at SearchGuild (thought right now I am in
no way speaking as / for SearchGuild)
I also have a blog about SEO stuff...

"I've always had a pretty low opinion of the Search Engine
Optimization industry. Though there are of course legitimate experts
in the field, it seems chock full of people who are barely above
spammers, and they taint the image of the whole group."

There are a bunch of low lives in any marketing industry. It is far
easier off the start for people to make money by ripping people off,
but there are many honest people who aim to help others. For example I
created a directory of worst practice SEO firms and techniques
(http://www.blackhatseo.com).

There is a bunch of misinformation on the web abot SEO and how search
engines work. Some people aim to extract profits and rip people off,
others are honestly aiming to lower the cost of entry into the
businessworld by encouraging people to publish their thoughts (similar
to what your goals were on your about page).

"That being said, I do watch what they do from time to time,
especially as they've become enchanted with the power of blogs, both
from a comment-spamming perspective as well as their evny of bloggers'
PageRank."

Strong weblogs do hold a bunch of power in the eyes of search engines,
especially Google. Obviously comment spam allows people to achieve
higher rankings then they otherwise may through artificial
manipulation.

The whole comment spam thing is somewhat short sided in it's attack of
SEOs though. Recently I was interviewed about the history and future
of spam and the role bots played in them. I was looking around the web
and found this site
http://www.blogspam.org/
the #1 result in Google for "blog spam"
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=blog+spam

The irony of his anti blog spam site is that it uses the popularity
that movement got to increase link popularity into his site where he
is linking off to "discount cigarettes" and "Canadian Pharmacy."

My point here is there are dirtbags looking to exploit any market. SEO
just happens to be a market where automated bots make large profits
easy for greedy people.

"I suspect, though, that those of us who've made content even when
there weren't bribes involved have an advantage."

It is not your content that is your advantage, but the audience your
content has created. Most people will not become icons with large
followings who can just make a statement on their site and get dozens
of inbound links for it.

"For all the back-and-forth about how Google is or isn't evil, the end
result of PageRank is that it's a hell of a lot more work to fake your
way into being a top result than it is to just have high ranking as a
fringe benefit of just being a person who loves writing. That's a good
thing."

This is how the web was intended to be designed, but it does have
flaws. Many people can abuse PageRank by attaching other things to an
idea or site though.
It is not that hard to fake your way to the top by renting links. Most
the people who are doing well in this contest have social networks
working for them (just like your blog is working for you.)

"So, in order to prove that real content trumps all the shady
optimization tricks that someone can figure out, and because I figure
I deserve an iPod at least as much as the Star Wars Kid, I'm entering
the contest."

The feedback loops in Google are probably too slow for you to win that
iPOD. Some sites in the contest already have over 100,000 backlinks.
If you get enough of the blog community behind you then you probably
will be able to win the second prize awarded next month. It would be
amazing if you could win the first one though. If you win it will not
be because blogs are more legitimate than SEO's, but because your
distributed social network is larger than others.

best of luck
aaron :)

aaron wall | June 5, 2004 6:13 AM | Reply

The current top ranked page is a blog, as well, basically relying on track-backs. Why are you doing this, again?

Sean | June 5, 2004 1:26 PM | Reply

I do not agree, in the least, that blogs should take center-stage on search results. However, have no problem with a blogger winning the Nigritude Ultramarine contest, but we should each ALL ask ourselves: what is Nigritude, in the first place??

:

Clearly, it is a variant (or FLAVOR) of attitude. And since attitude is something only Halley Suitt can personify, as Halley Suitt, I think we should ask her views. Or we could ask ms. nigritude, ms. danah boyd (since I haven't had a chance to get around her digital-ID-blog lately...)-; (Or is that still Ms. danah boyd?) Or we could ask the persona of Allied, but she can choose not to reply, of course.

:

Still, Ultramarine is a mystery unto itself, so why bother??

Anyhoo, never look at page-ranks and all that kind-a stuff, so dunno what the hail I'm talking about, in this case. (Few other cases, too, 'spose... ? ...;-D)

jt~

;-D

JamesJayTrouble | June 5, 2004 2:53 PM | Reply

Ooh this is un unexpected twist ... I hope Google Blogoscoped can hold.

Bart N. | June 5, 2004 6:07 PM | Reply

You're not going to stay mad and then try to sue someone are you?

The Mollusk | June 6, 2004 2:30 AM | Reply

My Google Blogoscoped has been pushed to number 2 again. The first ranked entry is, again, highly SEOd spam. Well if you wanted to have seen a real blog win, I suppose you should have linked to me while there was still time -- now I believe neither one of us is going to get top on the first round. However, best of luck for the second round next month, I think you have a good chance!

Philipp Lenssen | June 6, 2004 4:25 AM | Reply

Google rankings also are affected by what result one clicks on after doing a search. So you might want to ask people to do a search for "Nigritude Ultramarine," then find and click your result.

Rick G | June 6, 2004 4:38 AM | Reply

"Google rankings also are affected by what result one clicks on after doing a search."

This is potentially highly inaccurate information. The last majur search engine which was founded on (or heavily used) this principal was Direct Hit. They were bought out by Ask Jeeves only to be quickly replaced by Teoma's technology.

Within the first year of Direct Hit they had to rewrite their spam protection about a half dozen times.

Alexa is used to measure traffic by looking at clickthroughs and there are special automated programs in existance which aim to manipulate their numbers (which were highly inaccurate anyway).

aaron wall | June 6, 2004 11:42 AM | Reply

Rick, in general I think you are wrong -- it does not matter to Google rankings if someone clicks on them. That's because they can't track it, unless the site one lands on has AdSense running, or unless it's one of the rare instances where Google hands out tracking URLs (they do that sometimes, others, like Yahoo, do it all the time).

For example my blog will turn up like this in the Yahoo results:
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=2766679/K=google+blog/v=2/SID=e/TID=YS55_1/l=WS1/R=3/SS=96462811/H=0/MI=other/*-http://rdre1.yahoo.com/click?u=http://blog.outer-court.com/index.html&y=02B692EF8F1980C4&i=483&c=8540&q=02%5ESSHPM%5BL7xppxsz%3F%7Dspx6&e=utf-8&r=2&d=wow-en-us&n=E9E45H3T6F1K1OSR&s=14&t=&m=40C33B1F&x=0119407C128FE0F2

That's how Yahoo can track me when I click on it. However on Google my blog would turn up like this in the search result:

http://blog.outer-court.com/

... and there's no way Google can know wether or not I clicked on it.
Or do you believe Google has a special way to find out where you clicked, e.g. by cookies/ JavaScript?

Philipp Lenssen | June 6, 2004 11:43 AM | Reply

While blog content can certainly equal the quality of non-blogged content, I think the effect it has on linking may have been a bit unforseen by Google.

Are links from blogs worth as much as links from a non-blog site?

Ed Kohler | June 6, 2004 12:09 PM | Reply

Done. Just placed a link to your Nigritude Ultramarine article on my weblog.
Cheers!

Stefan Seiz | June 6, 2004 12:13 PM | Reply

My sense of justice has pushed me into linking to a blogger. Good luck.

tom | June 6, 2004 4:26 PM | Reply

Please, don't discount all the SEO in one quick move. If Google had a perfect algorithm there would be no black-hat or even borderline SEO. But all Google has at this time is a finite algorithm that can be realtively easy fooled and could miss some important pages at the same time.

If you have the quality content you have to package it in the right way to make it as search engine friendly as possible, if you care about making in to top SERPs, of course.

If you look at blogs model you will find that, in addition to making content publishing as easy as 1-2-3 for non-techies, blog technology *does* go an extra step in the SEO direction to ensure that blog content is ranked by Google as high as possible. And if you recall it was a problem for Google, which took some measures to limit blog influence in the past.

You are using SEO help of your blog provider every time you publish a blog post! In a sense you are taking a SEO advantage of someone else who still uses plain web site design.

So don't bash SEO in general if you did encounter some unscurpulos individuals using it. If there is a way to fool the system there will always be people wanting to take advantage of it.

I am rooting for Philipp's nigritude ultramarine blog [blog.outer-court.com] because he has topics relevant to nigritude ultramarine informarion: Google, SEO, spamming...

Mikhail | June 6, 2004 4:35 PM | Reply

I've never seen any evidence that 'the influence of weblogs' has been limited by Google - except the highly intelligent stuff that both Blogger and MT have done to avoid the benefits of comment spam.

I just thought I should add that I think Anil should post some other links through to the other articles about this SEO stuff - particularly the ones that told us to be aware of the liklihood of an influx of wiki spam links because of this contest. I think once you have this floor, it's worth using it to educate SEO people about the damage they have on the web community at large.

Tom Coates | June 7, 2004 2:54 AM | Reply

Good luck with winning this competiton.

Mario | June 7, 2004 9:21 AM | Reply

What would be interesting is if you could start a new weblog under completely different name, and never make any association (reference/link) from/to anildash nor MT/TypePad, and don't even tell anyone about it. And, see where you end up in PageRank after a year.

What this will show is how much power good content indeed has for gaining in PageRank. This experiment can only be done by someone who is already successful, like you, Joi Ito, and Kottke. There has been many theories going around about the fact that good content is secondary to being in the market early on, and leveraging the PageRank of associated/affiliated sites.

Dyske | June 7, 2004 10:17 AM | Reply

Good luck and I too am throwing my tiny, meager blog into the group of people supporting your campaign. Peace.

greene | June 7, 2004 11:01 AM | Reply

My thinking on this is that you should be right at the top of the list. However, there seem to be more than a few bogus manipulations at the top. Ah well.

d | June 7, 2004 11:31 AM | Reply

It's crazy that Google does not take into account what would clearly be the most useful information: what result to searchers click on. Taking it a step further: which do they click and do not return for a different entry.

pb | June 7, 2004 12:10 PM | Reply

Did you know that we're living in a Cameltoe World?

Cameltoe Guy | June 7, 2004 1:00 PM | Reply

I think you bring up an interesting point however, I think if it came down to it, there really is no valid way to enter this contest without a sort of 'spamming the search engine' oriented approach. Nigritude ultramarine, collectively meaning; blackness, the state of being black, and a blue pigment made from the powdered lapis lazuli (Of or from a place beyond the sea, as there were 5 results on websters.com).
And so, without spamming the search engine, you might expect a site with descriptions of jewelry or rare stones, or maybe even a web site that talks about the nature of colors and art.
I agree that manipulating a search engine for the mere purpose of manipulating a search engine is wasted energy. Let the search term Nigritude ultramarine turn up 0 zero results, let sleeping dogs lie. Maybe down the road a rare lapis stone will be found with black pigment, in which case the term nigritude ultramarine would the be the most eloquent descriptive choice of words. I think web logs are genuine and deserved to be among the highest ranked in search results. But I partially see you contradicting yourself, and see your approach to the contest as spam oriented as the next guy. The contest is over and the site that deserves to win by any means necessary, because the contest itself was merely a test of manipulating a search engine, not genuine results.

Jason | June 7, 2004 1:52 PM | Reply

The contest is not completely over, there is another prize being given out July 7th.

greene | June 7, 2004 2:41 PM | Reply

I've been helping out at IMR, which is currently 6th place.

All I can say is that this has been a fun contest, and that IT'S ON ANIL!

Vaughn | June 7, 2004 6:39 PM | Reply

Here was my Ultramarine Hulks late entry that I "hijacked" my main page with for 36 hours or so the day before the contest ended - Google ranked it #518 - guess Hulk wasn't able to SMASH Google! ;-)

Anonymous | June 7, 2004 7:17 PM | Reply

Hi Anil. The effort to get high Google PR and link text into any site is not a small one. While spamming is a tactic, I prefer building relationships that will hopefully endure past the finish of the competition. While that did not get me to first in round one, I will be having a good shot at the second with my Nigritude Ultramarine entry

I like to think of the competition as being something to raise the profile of SEO. Even bad publicity is good publicity - so hopefully there will be more people talking about how you can get to the top.

I see many sites ever day that if only they did their onpage optimisation a bit better, had better internal and external links, ... they would be higher on the search engines. With several sites I have helped, one link from me, plus the addition of in one case only two words on the page, and they were able to get to the top of a competitive term. Another site was a change in title, meta description, addition of about 4 words on the page, plus a link from me got him to the top within a week.

I have seen Webpronews comment that says the contest proves how easy it is to manipulate Google Nigritude Ultramarine winner announced - I prefer the alternate view, of how much effort is required if you want to get to the top against so much competition.

Of more interest to me is the effect of the duplicate page penalty, the noarchive penalty (I'm still sketchy about this one), and the instability of Googles serp rankings when there are so many new links being thrown at sites.

Regards
T2DMan - Time2Dine entry

Michael Brandon | June 8, 2004 1:40 AM | Reply

First, to repeat, Google does not take into account which results searchers click on (which is a big mistake in my opinion as it is probably the most crucial bit of information in determining which results meet user needs.

Question: sites like news.com are putting titles in their URLs but I haven't seen much evidence that Google counts this very highly. Anil wonders if MT should do the same. Most of the "Negritude" sites do *not* print the phrase in the URL.

pb | June 8, 2004 2:48 AM | Reply

Currently, you are number one...you could win if you kept it up by July 7.

-Vaughn
Nigritude Ultramarine

Vaughn | June 8, 2004 6:37 PM | Reply

Anil-

You were number one at Yahoo. All this fuss over Google, and everyone is ignoring the others and losing because of it.

At least you did not stoop to their level, so hold you head high -- be proud dude. Keep on keeping on. These guys will be out of job soon enough, and no skills to show for it.

Dodger | June 8, 2004 9:22 PM | Reply

I'm in this Nigritude Ultramarine challenge now (in the mid teens), but to be a "true competition" this would have started with everybody on an equal playing field. That is, the contestants would have all been assigned some weird domain name to run under (like 'hdiquwehr8923.com' or something) along with the challenge phrase. Then the contestants would have to register the assigned domain names, set the sites up from scratch (personal home page, forum, blog, whatever) and go from there. The contest would run for 4 months allowing time to build up content and PR value. Now if somebody wants to run that one I'd be interested in playing.

Terrazzo | June 8, 2004 10:33 PM | Reply

What exactly do you mean, you didn't win? I thought the goal was to be #1 on the search Google results for the phrase. And there you are, at #1. What about that constitutes not winning?

Jerry Kindall | June 11, 2004 5:32 PM | Reply

Jerry, there was a time deadline of 9am last monday morning, which I missed by about 30 hours. I'm guessing that, had I entered the contest a day earlier, I would have won.

But yeah, we're all winners!

Anil | June 14, 2004 2:52 AM | Reply

Anil, it's a two-stage contest!

The competition runs from the 7th of May to the 7th of July.

The Player prize goes to the page that is ranked #1, one month after the competition commences. They will receive an Apple Mini iPod� valued at $249 shipped to them within 72 hours of judging.

The Stayer prize goes to the page that has the #1 ranking on the 7th of July. They will receive a Sony Flat Screen Monitor valued at $549 shipped to them within 72 hours of judging.

Liz Lawley | June 14, 2004 6:35 PM | Reply

Hello Anil,
It is really proud to see an Indian winning the second part of the contest, I hope you stay on top till July 7th, ill be proud to say my employees that an indian won a tough SEO competition, all the best see you with the Flat screen monitor,
I am an indian too, I am in the competition too but all I can achieve is top 20 ranking,

goodguy1 | June 20, 2004 2:29 PM | Reply

Hello Anil,
Well done so far in the competiton. Not long to go now.

Interesting to read your comments on the Search Engine Optimisation Industry and how you always had a pretty low opinion on it. Although nice to know you recognise there are some experts in this field, you also say, "it seems chock full of people who are barely above spammers, and they taint the image of the whole group". Very interesting that. So what technique do you suppose these "barely above spammers" are using to try to de-throne you. You don't think they would be asking people to do them favours and "Link to this post with the phrase Nigritude Ultramarine" do you? The very thought :shock:

Have a nice day.

Oh by the way Goodguy, are Indians in some way inferior to the rest of us.I say this because you seem to be looking forward to telling your employees "that an Indian won a tough SEO competiton". The last time I spoke to my Indian friends I am sure they still had arms, legs, eyes, ears and a brain like the rest of us. I wonder what people would say if I said I would be really proud if a "white man won a tough SEO competiton".

You have to be careful what you say these days.

Peace

MrUnderhill

mrunderhill | June 24, 2004 10:48 AM | Reply

I do apologies. I mean't to say Englishman and not White man. Silly me.

mrunderhill | June 26, 2004 11:48 AM | Reply

Well, it seems like you've pretty much owned this competition Anil. But are you
still even intrested in Nigritude Ultramarine anymore? I haven't seen your blog
cover the Nigritude Ultramarine other than the two articles you wrote early on.

So, the question is, did you get bored of Nigritude Ultramarine? And the other
bloggers? Did they get tired of Nigritude Ultramarine and SEO too?

Personally, I think everyone has gotten bored of the competition really. I

haven't seen much excitement at the competition forums, or even the forums

of many competitors (including my own.) I think you have single-handedly
turned this game into an impossible situation that where no one can hope to

overcome you. That's pretty cool, you have to admit. But I am still amazed at
how Google can still continue to consider blogs important in link weight. It's
obviously been shown that they can alter results more than anything else. Why
would pre-IPO Google allow this? Has anyone considered the implications?

There are so many questions this competition has brought up. Surely, Google
is aware of what is going on now. Is the press? What will the media say when
this is all over? What will it reflect on Google?

So, have you been following the competition at all? What about the other
entrants? Have you gotten to know us? (What about taking a stop by my

forums? :P) Personally, I entered this so that I would get new people to visit my
forums and perhaps join. My strategy was a bit poor, I suppose. Maybe you

and your readers can visit anyway. :P Early on, I suppose I was mad at you for
taking away my traffic. But I don't think my forum is the right demographic for
SEOs anyway. :P

Oh, and you should check out the Nigritude Ultramarine Orkut group. Not that

it has a real purpose, really. I just thought it was a bit funny to make one:
http://orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=57206

Maybe the other SEOs can join that too. :P

Well, good luck. Hope you don't get too tired of competing. :P

nigritude ultramarine | June 28, 2004 5:45 PM | Reply

Wow, this has been an amazing contest. Everyone has worked so hard!!

This is it!! The final stretch of the competition. Good luck everyone!

SEO Master | June 30, 2004 3:58 PM | Reply

Good luck anil ;)

muleasdf | July 1, 2004 1:03 AM | Reply

Uh oh, the rankings are beginning to shift. I'm pretty sure you've got the power to beat these guys, but just make sure. IMR and TJ are catching up.

SEO Master | July 1, 2004 3:36 PM | Reply

Hey, what about merkey ;)

muleasdf | July 1, 2004 4:15 PM | Reply

TJ took over it's #2 spot. Also, Philipp Lenssen fell of the first SERPs completely.

It's really shaking up now!!

SEO Master | July 1, 2004 7:43 PM | Reply

Strong weblogs do hold a lot of power in the eyes of google. Obviously comment spam like this allows people to achieve higher rankings then they otherwise may through artificial manipulation such as a wiki sandbox.

muleasdf | July 1, 2004 9:17 PM | Reply

Well, as for wiki sandboxing, Philipp Lenssen had an intresting article about it here:
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2004_06_01_index.html#108608909046269742

Still, isn't this just the same as spamming?

SEO Master | July 2, 2004 3:32 AM | Reply

It's so unfair that this page is still ranked #1. :)

fluffy | July 2, 2004 3:48 AM | Reply

No it isn't, fluffy. Anil has done a better job than any of us. He should be commended.

Way to go, Anil! Just five more days!

SEO Master | July 2, 2004 4:48 PM | Reply

Yea, you go ana--err, anil

muleasdf | July 3, 2004 12:08 AM | Reply

Well, you might notice the little smiley, but... It's not like he's actually actively tried to boost his pagerank over time. It's just that people keep on adding links, or the big glut of weblogs out there who linked in the past keep it in a positive feedback loop or something, based on his already huge web presence. I mean, it's not meant to be critical of Anil - he obviously has a huge following and apparently writes enough stuff which enough people find interesting. But that's sort of turned this contest into a "who has the most celebrity?" contest instead of a "who has the strongest link-fu?" contest.

fluffy | July 3, 2004 12:33 AM | Reply

You know, Fluffy, that makes a lot of sense. I've seen your blog entry, and you seem to be working pretty hard. It's just about popularity, I guess. I don't think I'm going to win it; I'm very unpopular. But does this mean I'm any less deserving? What about you? But does this make Anil less deserving? I don't think so.

Who really deserves to win this contest at all? Are we not all equal?

That's a lot to think about...

SEO Master | July 3, 2004 5:25 AM | Reply

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