I received an interesting call on Friday from our rep at Outrider. It seems that Yahoo thinks that AnyCoupons sends SPAM. To be perfectly clear: I hate SPAM. I hate it to the point that my company does too little e-mail marketing. We do not and will not ever SPAM.

So, you ask, why does Yahoo think that AnyCoupons sends SPAM and how did our rep Outrider know this?

Yahoo now publishes a bright red warning about AnyCoupons its search engine results pages (SERPs). For any keywords where AnyCoupons remains in Yahoo, you will see the following warnings (this one for the keyword online coupons):

Yahoo’s New SearchScan

It looks like Yahoo may be looking for ways to lose to Google after thwarting Microsoft’s acquisition attempt. Yes, SearchScan is in beta but generally when a service is in beta, a company is responsive to issues, especially where a company is wronging an innocent party. The reason to put beta on a new service is to let users know that there are bugs. The responsibility that goes with that is to do something when users notify you of bugs.

SearchScan is supposed to warn users when Yahoo has bad search results. Yahoo is unable to root out sites that send SPAM or that have malicious downloads. Today Techcrunch reported that Yahoo had listed Google as distributing malware. It was an error in a listing and Yahoo corrected that error with little more than a blog post on Techcrunch… within hours. As you will read, we have had no such luck. If anyone at Excite has seen it, they haven’t had any luck either.

Why does Yahoo think AnyCoupons sends SPAM?

As I started to investigate why AnyCoupons was targeted by Yahoo as a spammer, I found that Yahoo bases its rating on information provided by McAfee. The McAfee report on AnyCoupons was interesting. When I first saw the Sample Inbox (see image below), I thought it was a sample of what the inbox might have looked like. As I viewed reports for other websites, I realized it was a partial list of e-mails that were received when McAfee tested AnyCoupons. I am guessing that McAfee registers with a random-looking e-mail address and then watches the inbox. The e-mail address assigned to AnyCoupons received 22 in a week last October. The only problem is that we didn’t send them and we didn’t sell the address. We don’t send SPAM and we never sell our members’ information.

Correcting Their Mistakes

Now you’re thinking that it’s a mistake and it should be easy to get it fixed. Welcome to my hell.

I submitted the form at McAfee to fix it. I didn’t expect to hear anything back and I have not.

I submitted the Ratings Dispute for at Yahoo. There is a form specifically for this issue so I knew that Yahoo would look at it, see its mistake and fix it. Why else would Yahoo have a form for this if it weren’t going to do anything about it. Here’s the response I received:

From: Yahoo! Search Webmaster [mailto:search-webmaster@cc.yahoo-inc.com]

Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 11:27 AM

To: David Lewis

Subject: Re: Rating Dispute (KMM124900088V43986L0KM)

Hello David,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Search Webmaster.

We receive data from our partner, McAfee, about security risks on certain web sites. We display that data on our search results page, depending on the preferences you have set on your Yahoo! Search preferences page:

http://search.yahoo.com/preferences/preferences

In order to dispute or change a rating for your site, please contact McAfee by emailing them directly at:

support@siteadvisor.com

or visiting:

http://www.siteadvisor.com/feedback.html

Regrettably, Yahoo! cannot change a McAfee decision on a site’s rating, as their decision is final.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Search Webmaster.

Regards,

Gabriel

Yahoo! Search Webmaster Customer Care

A templated answer. Obviously Gabriel didn’t understand the situation so I thought I would point out that Yahoo is, in fact, responsible for what it publishes on its website. This isn’t part of a search listing being reproduced from a website. This is editorially added by Yahoo and is libeling my website. So I wrote back:

That is an interesting reply. Unfortunately, it is not acceptable and it is not correct.

Yahoo MUST take responsibility for what it places on its SERPs. It is Yahoo and not McAfee that is disparaging AnyCoupons. It is Yahoo who has created a policy to give inaccurate information on its SERPs. It is Yahoo that has chosen to remove AnyCoupons from Paid Inclusion. Yahoo has chosen to rely on McAfee’s inaccurate information and must take responsibility for what it does with that inaccurate information.

Why is there a link on the page for a Rating Dispute if Yahoo is unwilling to take action? It looks as if Yahoo does know that it is responsible but someone at Yahoo made a decision that Customer Service should send the misguided template below as an answer to disputes from legitimate websites.

I expect this warning to be removed from all listings for AnyCoupons on Yahoo and for our Yahoo Paid Inclusion campaign to be reinstated by Monday, May 12, 2008. Removal of our listings from Yahoo’s search engine is NOT an acceptable solution. If any action was taken by Yahoo regarding our Paid Search campaign or our Yahoo Directory listing, I expect those to be corrected as well by Monday.

Thank you for your immediate action on this matter.

-David

Good now Gabriel would escalate it as he will see that a template doesn’t fit the situation. Yahoo made a mistake in its new beta service. He will submit it to McAfee through the system that I am sure the two companies set up. (I used to negotiate deals like this with multi-billion dollar companies so I know that you set up direct lines of communication and escalation procedures. There are always bugs and mistakes when a new system comes online. You want to make sure that you catch them early and that your team is well-trained to keep problems in check.)

Gabriel’s reply:

Hello David,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Search Webmaster.

As previously stated, Yahoo! cannot change a McAfee decision on a site’s rating, as their decision is final. Please contact McAfee to resolve any issues regarding your sites rating.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Search Webmaster.

Regards,

Gabriel

Yahoo! Search Webmaster Customer Care

WOW! Yahoo not only won’t take responsibility but it won’t do anything to try to correct it. Apparently Yahoo is content with having inaccurate information that damages another company on its website and won’t do anything to correct it… unless it’s Google.

It gets worse: Paid Inclusion

We used to get listed on Yahoo through its Paid Inclusion program (formerly Inktomi). I say used to because Yahoo terminated us from the program due to our alleged spamming. Again, we do not SPAM! I spoke to our rep at Outrider. (Yahoo transitioned our direct relationship for Paid Inclusion to a company that was bought by a company that recently was bought by Outrider.)

I know that Outrider, a massive ad agency specializing in search, will have a communication channel set up with Yahoo to handle issues with Paid Inclusion. You guessed it. My Outrider rep said that there is nothing he can do. He sent an e-mail to Yahoo and heard that it was up to McAfee. I cc’ed him on my e-mail exchange with Gabriel over the weekend but have heard nothing back.

There’s more: Paid Search

Now you’re remembering that I worked at GoTo.com / Overture in the early days. Surely my old company would know that I’m not a spammer and would call before taking any drastic actions.

On Friday we received a slew of e-mails notifying us that our campaigns were taken offline. Almost all of them. I don’t know why some were left.

So we contacted our latest rep who, like every other search engine rep, has told us repeatedly how helpful he wants to be. He was out of the office on Friday. Today his response came:

Hi David:

Hope all is well with you. Stephen contacted me regarding the declined ads you have in your account. After looking further into it, it turns out that your ads were identified by McAfee as leading to a site that appears to violate our guidelines. As a result, these ads may no longer appear in our search results. We welcome the opportunity to accept ads from you that comply with our guidelines. Examples of web site content that does not meet our guidelines include:

  • Automatic downloads (threat of viruses, worms and Trojans to visitors of the website.)
  • Security breaches (threat of downloads that may include spyware, malware, etc.)
  • Sites that send spam emails to visitors of the site without their consent

For more information, please visit http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Also, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions. Thank you!

Again, Yahoo claims to be helpless at correcting its on-going and growing mistakes. It is heartwarming to know that Yahoo welcomes the opportunity to accept ads from you that comply with our guidelines. All of our ads do comply except when Yahoo runs them through an erroneous filter.

What does this mean for traffic?

They say that a picture is worth 1,000 words… it’s obviously not worth a lot of clicks…

Hey Yahoo… Get a clue!

So there you have it. My life as a spammer according to Yahoo. We have a hideous warning on algorithmic/natural results. We’ve been terminated from Paid Inclusion and mostly from Paid Search… and Yahoo says it’s not responsible. Of course by some miracle, the warning that Google is a provider of malware vanished today. Lest someone point it out in comment, we are not Google.

It wouldn’t have been an issue had Yahoo taken responsibility for its own site. It wouldn’t have been an issue had Yahoo or Outrider recognized that my company has had relationships with each them for several years and that I used to work at what is now Yahoo’s paid search division. I’m not looking for favors. I just think that there are ways to operate companies and ways to treat your partners. This isn’t it.

I have one last relationship with Yahoo. Do you think I should expect to have my Yahoo Instant Messenger account terminated?

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