Why can't Google see into the forum threads? robots.txt? Something else? Was this a conscious choice on our side?

The other day I tried to use google to find the threads here with "Albie Fiore" in them (restricting the search to "site:acaeum.com"). I had read those threads previously, and I knew they were here, so I was surprised when google gave me back an empty search results page. I tried a few other possible searches via google, then tried using the acaeum's search mechanism. Acaeum's mechanism worked, but google's didn't. Yahoo searching has the same problem; I imagine the problem extends to all search engine sites.

As much as I like the built-in search function on the forum, google's engine is better at certain kinds of searching, including fuzzy matching, attempts to find posts within date ranges, etc. Plus it works even if acaeum.com is offline, and can show me the last cache of a page.

If this is something that changed on our side, can we get search engine capability turn back on?

Ah yes, that makes sense. I just submitted the top-level forum URL to google for (re)indexing. Maybe that's all the kick in the pants they need...

FoulFoot wrote:It's sort of a long rant for another day, but Google has decided to play nasty with competitors.  One of those competitors is eBay.  If you feature eBay links on your site, you run the risk of Google de-listing you -- that's what's happened here.  They've categorized the Acaeum as a link-farm, and thus removed it from the majority of their search results.  There's no recourse, and from reports I've read, they won't re-add you.

There is an appeal process, and it can be navigated and worked through:  a friend had his site delisted, and was able to finally get the changes made that made google happy, and he's relisted now.  If you want me to ask, I'd be happy to get some more details on the appeal process, Scott?

Why would google see eBay as competition?  That is perplexing, unless eBay is allied with someone else behind the scenes.  Bing?  Shrug.

Personally, I would consider it an honor to be ignored by the crumb-bags known as Google. Well done!