William "Chops" Westfield mac.com> writes: > I don't think this is google being bought, I think it's just > sites that have learned how to manipulate the search engines. It is not 'sites' it is a specialized skill that requires full time work. And pay proportional to that. With the exception of gifted and lucky admins who get the job done the vast majority of the 'high rankers' were 'optimized'. Unfortunately a lot of 'optimizers' are hoaxes and there is no easy way to tell them apart. I just read recently that a firm hired an optimizer and that resulted in the entire site being 'optimized' into Google Hell for some time, losing millions of hits over weeks and months. Peter P. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist