

Ask HN: Why is Rap Genius Getting So Much Hacker News Attention? - ptwobrussell


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JohnTHaller
Because they are a YC company. There's really no other reason. YC companies
always get disproportionate coverage at HN. If you're confused as to why, look
at the URL in your browser's address bar.

Other than that, Rag Genius has a... polarizing... management team that
engaged in blackhat SEO techniques (buying links to attempt to bost pagerank
with payment in the form of Tweeting about the link provider's website from a
high-follower Twitter account) to boost their Google ranking and has received
an appropriate punishment (in line with what Google has been doing for years
now).

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amagumori
just to play devil's advocate, page ranking is extremely critical for lyrics
websites, where every website is functionally identical. you could argue that
rapgenius' tweet-for-link scheme was necessary to compete in a marketplace
full of lyrics sites that actually buy links for money or employ other darker-
hat techniques.

~~~
JohnTHaller
Page ranking is extremely critical for all kinds of websites. So, there's all
kinds of reasons for people to cheat the system. And, when cheaters get
caught, they get the appropriate page rank penalty. Saying 'but this other
site paid for backlinks with money, we only paid with tweets' isn't really an
appropriate defense.

