Anil kicks linkspammers' asses

A bunch of blog-spammers and google-spoofers (the euphemism is "Search Engine Optimization" -- no doubt you've received spam offering you this "service") set up a competition to see who could become the number one Google result for the previously unused phrase "nigritude ultramarine." So they set about creating their link-farms and so forth.

Then Anil Dash, a blogger who works for SixApart, decided to kick their asses. These spammers' google-whuffie was puny relative to Anil's popular, much-linked blog, and when he created a post and asked his readers to link to him using "nigritude ultramarine" as the link-text, he won the competition handily.

To Dash, then, winning the flat-screen television awarded to the second-round victor was testament to the power of good content and a longstanding online presence.

"A lot of people are trying to increase their page rank unethically," said Dash. "I think if we show them (that) the best thing you can do is to write really good material, then hopefully, they'll spend their time doing that (instead of) spending time coming up with ways to graffiti other people's pages."

Furthermore, Dash maintained, his victory proves one thing: That the Web is a meritocracy.

"A page that's read by people instead of robots is going to do better," he said.

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