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Comment by pccampbell | Hacker News Reader

This is the way it's supposed to work. This doesn't appear how it's working with RapGenius:

TC article: http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/25/google-rap-genius/

"Update: Rap Genius’ founders have provided this statement, indicating they’re working with Google on being returned to better search result rankings:

... (statement from RapGenius talking about resolution)

"Looks like Rap Genius and Google might come to some compromise where Google restores at least some of the startup’s search result ranking juice in exchange for it cleaning up its act. However, at least some of the decreased visibility is likely to stick around for a long time, impeding Rap Genius’ business. We’ll have more details on the outcome of the talks as soon as possible and we are awaiting a response from Google."

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We've seen nothing from Google suggesting this is happening. My guess is that Rap Genius are being overly generous with what negotiations are going on. E.g. Google Webmaster Tools are showing why the penalty is happening (that's what Google's brought to the table) and Rap Genius is fixing what it says their.

I doubt there's any sort of quid pro quo going on here.

"Update: Rap Genius’ founders have provided this statement, indicating they’re working with Google on being returned to better search result rankings"

That could easily mean "We are using the tools Google provide to everyone to fix our stuff" but by phrasing it the way they did they make themselves seem important because

A) They are working "with" Google (Like an equal)

B) They are important because Google is paying attention to them.

I sincerely hope what they have written is just hyperbole and the reality is they are not getting any special help.

that actually fits with their pompous "YOLO" attitude

"restores at least some of the startup’s search result ranking juice in exchange for it cleaning up its act"

As I tweeted to Josh on Twitter[1] this actually happens to all sites once they've got themselves out of a penalty and the Google Algorithms trust the site again.

[1] https://twitter.com/profitbaron/status/415918373575213056

My interpretation is that Google may be willing to inform them better about what is considered legitimate and what is not. Then, their ranking will be returned as time goes on.

That's the point of the quesion! Why should they be able to enter into a dialogue with google right smack in the middle of the holidays when others can't get a hold of anyone in google anytime in the regular calendar?

It's not clear what kind of dialogue they mean. From my reading, it could be pretty much talking to a google 800 number and they made it sound like they were being treated specially to spin their screwup to the public and investors.

My feeling on what's going to happen here is a shortening of the time in "as time goes on." As in, as soon as RapGenius shows Google they've cleaned up, Google will poke GoogleBot to jump RapGenius's queue-position in PageRank re-calculation.

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