Don't mess with Google, unless...

Egad, BMW gamed Google! It used recognized, albeit smarmy SEO strategies to improve its Page Rank. As a result, Google has blacklisted the BMW.de site,The results of a search displayed by Google in China are deceptive to users and display different content than would be displayed to other users. reducing its Page Rank to zero. Printer manufacturer Ricoh's German Web site will soon suffer the same fate. Apparently, both companies took the same advice from a German SEO consultant.

Google engineer Matt Cutts explained on his blog that the action was taken because "That’s a violation of our webmaster quality guidelines, specifically the principle of 'Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users.'”

Cutts also passes along a cryptic message to a naughty company:

Finally, as long as we’re on the subject of cars: to the domestic car maker whose European domain had hidden text on the front: your 30 day removal was set to expire in two days, but the hidden text has been taken off the page, so I’m scheduling the domain for reinclusion now.

Okay. I guess that's some kind of diplomacy in action. Clearly, Google negotiates constantly with corporations about what it will display in search results. Why doesn't it stand up to a government with the same dedication to the definition of truth? Why is Google considering preferential placement for partners? The results of a search displayed by Google in China are deceptive to users and display different content than would be displayed to other users. I'm just saying.... So is the BBC.

I don't see Google practicing the users-in-charge, bubble-up philosophy that Esther Dyson says the company practices. This kind of we-define-the-truth stuff is pretty top-down.