UPDATE: It seems an attempt by Google to push Chrome by sponsoring blogs with links to articles about the ‘business benefits of Chrome’, has blown up in its face. It seems the campaign was real and Google was not the victim of an SEO poisoning attack.
Google forbids the practice of using paid links to influence search rankings. The campaign was first discovered by SEOBook’s Aaron Wall.
A report by SearchEngineLand came to the conclusion that Google is flouting its own Ts & Cs by buying links and putting ‘sponsored by Google Chrome’ into searches.
The article also alleges Google is putting sponsored content about the ‘benefits of Chrome’ into various blogs that appear in top 10 results for ‘benefits of Chrome’ with direct links to downloading the Chrome browser. Again against Google rules.
It’s a conundrum but Google’s answers should be interesting.
Either, as originally thought Google is a victim of SEO poisoning or it is behaving rather cavalierly and taking advantage of the success of Chrome lately.
This morning it emerged Microsoft Internet Explorer’s user share dropped in December 2011, according to StatCounter, while Chrome’s share increased.
