(3)
I figured I take a different look at Matt's Give Google feedback on "noresults" pages. In short, Matt Cutts of Google wants you to submit feedback to Google on search results that lead to reviews, but those reviews don't actually have a review. For example, Matt McGee points out one example of this at Search Engine Land. A search for sd880is reviews returns a result that shows this:
That is what Matt said most people want Google to tackle in 2009 in terms of search spam. Personally, I dislike going to a page that should have reviews on a product and not find any reviews. So I do hope Google does clean up those results.
This is also perfect if you have a competitor in the retail business and they have a reviews section that contains products with no reviews. This might be able to help you. Or maybe not...
This whole topic touches on the very controversial topic of wether or not SEOs should report other SEOs or competitors to Google or other search engines. When we polled our audience in May 2008, we learned that Most SEOs Don't Report Competitors To Google. About 70% said they do not report competitors to Google. Why? Many reasons including pride, morals, community, low blow, the "us vs them" attitude, feeling your not good enough to beat your competitor, and so on.
Is this the same thing as reporting spam on your competitors? I am not sure. If you don't do SEO and your an active searcher who hates empty reviews, then help Google, help you. If not, then you need to make a decision.
Forum discussion at Sphinn.
