A Google engineer created an algorithm which banned an SEO website after the site published a cartoon lampooning Matt Cutts, one of Google’s highest-profile “engineers”. The site, known as SEO Idiot and run by “paul”, previously an AdSense publisher, and previously in good standing, featured a cartoon depiction of Google personality Matt Cutts as well as the site logo: a jeuvenile bad-boy apparently relieving his bladder while baring his “plumber’s crack” and smirking at the camera. The Matt Cutts depiction was labeled Matt, and was clearly identifiable as the same ultra-high-profile Google Quality representative Mr. Cutts. Within days of the publishing of that cartoon (the first SEO cartoon ever produced by SEO Idiot), Paul’s AdSense account was banned.
This is not the first time that the Google algorithm has been “adjusted”. It is also not the first time a site that depicts Google unfavorably has experienced the darker side of what some SEO’s are calling “manic-depressive Google”.
“You’re in one day, rewarded like the King’s favorite tax collector, and the next day you’re banished from the kingdom”, said one SEO who asked not to be identified for what he called “obvious reasons”.
On the right is what appears to be a favorable portrayal of Mr. Cutts as a mild-mannered alter-ego of a Spam Fighting Super Hero, which appears on the web site along with the other cartoon portrayals. Click on the image to read the rest of the comic strip lampooning Mr. Cutts and his crusade against those that Google considers to be “in violation of the Google Terms of Service”.
