Seraphim Proudleduck
Seraphim proudleduck is a term made up by
Salmonbone's Google contest (no longer online) to test methods and best
approaches for search engine
optimization (the process of modifying a web page's contents and links
to ensure a high ranking in a search engine).
The specific target of interest was Google's
search engine.
Contest
The contest ran from September 1, 2004 to January 1, 2005.
Before the competition, Google was showing no results for seraphim
proudleduck. When the contest ended, over 520,000 results existed for the
term.
The goal was to have the top position for the search term seraphim
proudleduck in a Google search done on January 1, 2005 at 1am. As different
Google servers are known to show different results, the search was to be
performed from the UK. Three prizes were going to be awarded for the top
positions. The winner of the challenge was to get 1000 pounds. The second
prize was 300 pounds, the third prize was 200 pounds, and a bonus prize (a
webpage with a PageRank of 7) was going to be
awarded to the number one position for the phrase in Google Images.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, the contest organizer announced
that he sold the SalmonBones.co.uk domain name, and no prize was actually
awarded. (The contest winner, Google Blogoscoped, wrote more about this on
their website.)
Effects of the contest
Many people consider this kind of modification to be "gaming
the system". It is known that Google regards some kinds of
search engine optimization tactics to be
illegitimate, and penalizes pages and websites that use them. It is not
known if Google took any action against this competition's entrants.
During the previous nigritude
ultramarine contest (mid-2004), weblogs and wikis were being hit hard,
and needed to be constantly policed to prevent
nigritude ultramarine spam from
lowering their signal-to-noise ratio. Public sandboxes were especially
vulnerable. This method of promotion was banned from the seraphim
proudleduck contest.
Trivia
The phrase seraphim proudleduck has no meaning, but the
words themselves do. Seraphim is a class of angels in Jewish and Christian
mythology, and Proudleduck is the nickname of Adam Proudluck, a Sheffield
Wednesday Football Club player.
When searching Google for seraphim proudleduck, Google asks, "Did you mean
seraphim puddleduck?"
See also
External links
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