One interesting point this brings up is that it's sometimes difficult to tell whether you're in a "bad neighborhood" or not.
In other words, if I'm considering using co.cc to host my (legitimate) blog, there's no realistic way for me to browse through all 11 million subdirectories; notice that some 6,000 are spammy; and conclude that the site has a high risk of being burned by Google.
Of course, there are indirect methods of discerning a host's reputation and likeliness to attract spammers -- starting from the fact that co.cc is a free service -- but they may be too difficult for a layman to pursue.
Hence, I am going to start offering Google Burn Insurance. For a low monthly premium, you'll have peace of mind knowing that if your legitimate, non-spammy site is ever banned as "collateral damage," you'll get a tidy lump-sum payment that you can use to rebuild your site somewhere else.
Here's a hint: If it's free on the internet, spammers and scammers will try to take advantage of it. If you can't see anything to stop them, then there's probably something you can't see that will stop them. Like Google delisting the entire ___domain.
Pay for your own ___domain and hosting service and this won't happen to you.
co.cc clearly advertises bulk purchases of 1000 domains from their front page. if you can't tell from this that it's a 'bad neighborhood', maybe you should be hiring somebody else to handle your web stuff for you.
In other words, if I'm considering using co.cc to host my (legitimate) blog, there's no realistic way for me to browse through all 11 million subdirectories; notice that some 6,000 are spammy; and conclude that the site has a high risk of being burned by Google.
Of course, there are indirect methods of discerning a host's reputation and likeliness to attract spammers -- starting from the fact that co.cc is a free service -- but they may be too difficult for a layman to pursue.
Hence, I am going to start offering Google Burn Insurance. For a low monthly premium, you'll have peace of mind knowing that if your legitimate, non-spammy site is ever banned as "collateral damage," you'll get a tidy lump-sum payment that you can use to rebuild your site somewhere else.
Any takers? :)