In an interesting discussion at the SearchEngineWatch forums, Your Competition CAN Hurt Your Rankings In Google, member shazbot describes how his site tanked after he purchased some site-wide links from well-ranked sites. Of course, anecdotal evidence doesn’t mean much with search engine rankings - there are many things that ...

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An editorial at WSJ.com - The Doctor’s Office - notes that just about every medical condition has its own web community. The author, Benjamin Brewer, is a physician who finds that a portion of his patients go too far with their web research. These patients look up symptoms, ...

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A BBC article says that ten people were arrested in Brazil after they were found to be using Orkut, Google’s online community and social networking site, to put together drug deals. (more…)

Today, just about every software manufacturer has a discussion forum attached to their website. These forums create an easily searchable knowledgebase of real questions and solutions, and can reduce the load on tech support staff. Sometimes, knowledgeable users often respond to the inquiries of other users, in essence ...

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According to a Microsoft press release, the Xbox online gaming community doubled in size in the last twelve months, and is adding a new member every 30 seconds. (more…)

When you talk to web community people, that is, operators of discussion forums, social networking sites, and the like, the most common lament is the difficulty of monetizing these efforts. Social sites tend to be technology intensive, demand continuous moderation, and have a voracious appetite for bandwidth. (more…)

PhillyBurbs.com, in Supervisor praises Web site town meeting, reports that the use of an online discussion forum has helped Solebury, PA, residents provide input on town business and recently brought rapid action on a swimming pool project. (more…)

At a time when many large companies are finally getting interest in building web communities, Dell eliminated their Customer Care Forum with a simple post. (more…)

An Associated Press story, picked up by major outlets like USATODAY.com, highlights what savvy webmasters have known for years - Google knows a lot about its users. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal, in Using Fiction to Sell Fiction, notes that publishers are exploiting online communities to sell books. They describe a couple of approaches, including setting up a blog written by a fictional character as well as other phony websites. (more…)