Waiting For Google

In the late nineties, I played drums in a local theatre production and at one of the cast parties, a bunch of actors told us we HAD to see Waiting For Guffman.  You've seen this mockumentary right, from the Spinal Tap guys?  Pretty funny.  A middle-of-nowhere town puts on a ridiculous play with the hopes of being discovered by a famous Broadway producer, ala Guffman, who they hope will fly to the middle-of-nowhere to see their winning production.  This is why they are Waiting For Guffman.  I'll let you watch the movie to see if he ever shows up. 

Meanwhile, in real life, we are sitting here in Bloomington, Illinois (yes, pretty much middle-of-nowhere) waiting for GOOGLE.  Waiting for Google to start showing search results again for 100 Year Picnic.  To see for yourself, here's a Google search on '100 Year Picnic'. 

For about the past two months, Google has blocked our site, www.100yearpicnic.com, from their search results.  Why?  I have no idea.  We have never received any notification or any reasons why, even after multiple attempts to contact Google.  We have filled out the necessary forms, and our job now is to sit and wait.  Pretty freaky.  And lame. 

Update: Sometime in early December, we appeared again in the Google search results.  Despite our various attempts to contact Google in this 10 week period of time, we never received a single communication from Google nor any indication of any wrong-doing.   

Apparently this is happening to plenty of other reputable web citizens.  You know what, there are just so many examples, like this one here and here and here.  Now the irony: How did I find all of these examples?  Google.

Look, I'm no Google basher.  Don't want to be.  They do make life easier for all of us, at least most of the time.  I believe they have the right intentions and they obviously have some of the brightest minds in the world.  I know they have a pretty tough job trying to stop the bad guys on the internet, the spam bloggers (sploggers) and others trying to game the search engines or mislead the internet consumer.  I can only assume this is some automated error.

But come on, this is wrong.  Google was founded on user-centered design principles, so shouldn't it be a priority for Google to:

1. Be accountable for their decision and actions to shut down accounts, reduce PageRank to zero, and block sites from search results. 
2. Provide clear feedback and communication when a problem is identified and suspected.
3. Provide a more expedient way to resolve problems.
4. Get smarter in their effort to sort out the bad sites from the good sites.

So now what?  I've done everything I can do.  And I've waited almost 2 months with no results, no communications, and no answers.  I hate asking for help, but do you know anyone that works for Google that can help us???  It seems like that is the only thing that works. 

Comments

[Greg Pare]

Something funky is going on. Type

site:100yearpicnic.com

into google.com and you'll see your site fully indexed. But, typing only 100yearpicnic.com or "100 year picnic" doesn't bring your site up at all on any of the pages. Do you have any other domain names (like onehundredyearpicnic.com) pointing to the same site. I know google doesn't like different domains with the exact same content and will sometimes only show one of them... my 2 cents. If you only have the one domain, I'm at a loss.

[Greg Pare]

You might also try finding forums for typepad users, or contacting typepad support (that is what you're using correct?). I found this about google sitemaps with typepad:

http://support.typepad.com/cgi-bin/typepad.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=927&p_created=1180041227&p_sid=6ml_-Djj&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MjEmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWdvb2dsZQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Are you using sitemaps?

[Jeff]

Thanks for your help Greg. I have tried all those things that you mention and I also have a webmaster tools account which shows no errors. Typepad helped point to the sitemaps which I now have, but that's about all they could help with. They told everything should work based on what they are seeing from their end. The only other thing I could check is our record company site, www.wheeliepop.com, which has some of the same links and content. I guess I can remove that content and see what happens. None of it makes sense to me. Thanks so much for taking the time to help, Jeff

[Greg Pare]

I believe it would have to be the exact same content like a domin alias. Wheeliepop shouldn't be affecting it.

[Jeff]

I had some of my typepad typelists on the wheeliepop site so I deleted those and deleted other content and links just to try yet another thing. I've pretty much tried everything.

[Bob Gallagher]

Hey!
I've added your website link to my homepage "favorites" to help you guys while you dance the "Google Shuffle".
I don't get but a couple hundred hits a week but it might help.
Maybe others can do the same.....
BG

[Greg Pare]

Looks like it's working now...

[Jeff]

Yes finally! I'll refrain all the swear words and just say it was a pain. Thanks for your help Greg, Jeff

[Lexie]

that really stinks. I am at school. in computer class.
LOVE ya
Dad,
BYE