The opendarwin .com debacle

[Scott Haneda]

On Oct 22, 2009, at 11:21 AM, Mark Hattam wrote:

> Go to Google ... enter something like ... mysql5 port macosx
>
> 1. mysql.com
> 2. out of date way to get php5, mysql5, apache2 using MacPorts ...  
> what's gawk & nawk ???
> 3. the "unwanted" site
> ...
> 8. again the "unwanted" site, with a sublist of lots more results
> ...
> further down some hits for the trac to with bugs
> ...
> nowhere in the first 100 hits is    www.macports.org
>
> So it's little wonder that the "other" site keeps cropping up.
>
> Google does have a good number of pages ... search for ... site:www.macports.org
>
> In fact there are 328 hits for
> site:www.macports.org mysql5
>
> but having found which of those is a relevant one ... most of them  
> have the generic "The Macports Project - Available Ports" page title.

Good points.  The controlling factor of this, for the most part is,  
that the nefarious site maintains a better page rank.  The good news  
is, his tactics are old, and largely irrelevant.  To get ahead of him  
would not be that hard.

Being really generic about this:
site:darwinports.com 	22,800 internally linked pages
site:macports.org	45,100 internally linked pages

MacPorrs doubles his pages in that search, that battle is won.

Here is where MacPorts is failing:

link:macports.org	1,240
link:darwinports.com	743

While MP beats him in raw numbers, the authority of those who link to  
him is higher, so he wins.  It was preiously mentioned this is an  
issue of branding, which is true.  Branding is going to take time and  
work.  It is a long term goal.  The brand could be cleaned immensely  
by just making the domain go away, then MP becomes the authoritative  
brand.

It is a step 2 as far as I see it. The easiest way to deal with this.   
I wanted to make one last effort to contact the domain owner and  
present him the chance to do the right thing.  As long as I have  
permission to do so on behalf of MP, I will be happy to get that ball  
rolling.
-- 
Scott * If you contact me off list replace talklists@ with scott@ *