Concerns about Google wrongfully using our posts.

[Richard Hobbes]

Chris and Lara,

Did you know that Google is trolling the VGR board with a web engine called "Google Spider" and publishng our names and comments on the Google site? I'm very upset about this and will be writing a letter to Google on the matter. I didn't give Google permission to publish anything I wrote on their site nor did I give them permission to use my alias. Did you know about this?

(Any comments you have on this issue are appreciated.)

RH.

[Lara]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Chris and Lara,

Did you know that Google is trolling the VGR board with a web engine called "Google Spider" and publishng our names and comments on the Google site? I'm very upset about this and will be writing a letter to Google on the matter. I didn't give Google permission to publish anything I wrote on their site nor did I give them permission to use my alias. Did you know about this?

(Any comments you have on this issue are appreciated.)

RH.</div>

Google isn't trolling. Most search engines will come up with your name if you have posted anything on a public site. Try a yahoo search and Hotbot using your name. Your name comes up in both of those seach engines as well. I suppose you could ask for anything with your name to be removed from their search, but what the reply will be, I don't know. Welcome to cyberspace!

Perhaps Chris can explain it better if you need more information.

[Chris]

Richard, I'll ask about this. We did recently sign up for Google's new advertising program, which you may have noticed, which might have something to do with it. This might be in the agreement somewhere, but I'm not sure. Can you send me the URL where you found this?

Though I don't know for sure if we directly gave them permission to do this, if we did, our Terms of Use page pretty much explains that it's okay for us to distribute our content, as long as we are not giving out any personal info:
http://www.consumerreview.com/terms.html

[Chris]

Actually, it looks like Google is spidering the forums so that threads will show up in their search results. Has nothing to do with our advertising agreement with them. Not to worry.

[Richard Hobbes]

Chris,

(I sent this to Lara too.)

Re: key technical issue in regard to the Google Spider.

The issue about the Google Spider that may be of concern to you folks is the number of times it is connecting to your web site simultaneously. I know you've been having performance concerns with the web sites. A spider program with many simultaneous connections definitely puts an abnormal load on a site. You may want to restrict Google from having so many instances of their engine connecting to your sites simultaneously.

Richard.