The World Wide Web, a platform that has revolutionized the way we live, work, and communicate, harbors a significant flaw that can impact anyone who hosts websites or web pages. This flaw, often overlooked, can lead to serious consequences for businesses and individuals alike.
Let's illustrate this issue with a hypothetical scenario. Imagine you own a company in Mallorca that manufactures high-quality adult toys. Recognizing the vast potential of the internet, you decide to create a comprehensive website showcasing your products, complete with detailed descriptions, vibrant images, user-friendly order forms, and automatic email responses.
Creating such a website requires either a deep understanding of web design or hiring a professional to do the job. After months of hard work and significant investment, your polished website is ready to be launched.
To make your website visible to potential customers, you submit it to various search engines like Yahoo!, Altavista, HotBot, Lycos, Delta, Direct Hit, and many more. If your website is not listed on these search engines, it will remain invisible to anyone outside your immediate circle.
Now, let's say your website is www.mallorca-adulttoys.com, and your email address is adulttoys@ocea.es. After months of effort and investment, your website is finally listed on major search engines. Business is booming until suddenly, your website disappears from several major search engines.
This phenomenon is not uncommon. In fact, it has been happening to many businesses, including mine, on a regular basis. One moment you're listed, and the next, you're wiped off the map.
The culprit behind this injustice is often your competition. A competitor, knowing your website URL and email address, can repeatedly submit your site to all the major search engines. This repeated submission is perceived as "spamming" by the search engines, leading to your website being penalized and dropped from their listings.
This tactic is even suggested on deadlock.com, where it states, "Re-submit it! Get the URL of your competitors document and submit it again. The robot (of the major search engines) will visit, realize it's SPAMMED, penalize it and it gets moved to the bottom of the pile, which means YOU MOVE UP!"
This loophole in the system can spell disaster for businesses trying to compete fairly on the internet. The solution lies in making the submission process more secure. Search engines and internet directories should require all website submissions to be accompanied by a unique PIN number, ID number, or password. This way, only the website owner can change, re-submit, or delete their site.
It's time to address this issue. Send an email to your friends and family, asking them to write to these search engines and directories, demanding a solution to this problem. The internet should be a platform for fair competition, not a battlefield where underhanded tactics can destroy a business overnight.
