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I want you to try this, go to Google Sitemaps and set up an account. Then add aol.com to your list and verify the site. Guess what! You get to see the statistics for AOL.
This is not just AOL, works on any site that has the Google Verification File on the server. I tried it with Yahoo and got; "NOT VERIFIED We couldn't find your verification file."
DaveN has a ton more information on this at his blog entry named Google Sitemaps OMG. This steams from a WebmasterWorld thread.
Google, how can we trust you anymore?
I started a thread at Search Engine Watch Forums named Google Loses Trust with Sitemaps.
Comments:
Simon
11/18/2005 04:39 pm
I was just thinking about this exact thing this morning after noticing that a site in my google account which was not verified (due to monstercommerce issues) previously were now mysteriously verified!
Erik
11/18/2005 04:50 pm
Barry, I did some research about a month ago and found that IIS is <a href="http://seoblog.intrapromote.com/2005/09/custom_404_erro.html">particularly bad</a> about giving off the wrong error codes on 404 pages. Back then it didn't appear to be such a big deal, but this GSM issue is a great reason for people to double-check their code. Cross-posted at your SEW thread - hope that's okay.
Barry Schwartz
11/18/2005 04:56 pm
Erik, Google may ban me for duplicate content. ;) Kidding, its cool - thanks for the info.
Eli Feldblum
11/20/2005 11:35 pm
Hey Barry, Looks like Google fixed the problem as of the morning. I can only see stats for my own sites now. Got it while I could - thanks for the headsup. -Eli