Matt Mullenweg and Google
so Matt Mullenweg on his blog Photomat wrote about Google hitting out at people selling links on their Blogs, in the comments he added :
Andy, I don’t know who was “hit” or not, but there were no changes on photomatt.net or wordpress.com and wordpress.org is still PR9
Hmmm Heads up Matt in this game we wait to see what happens, I’m seeing your at A PageRank 8 now,
But this is the backlash of all the WP blogs getting PR taken away from them or did Matt sell a link or 2 
?? what do you think
DaveN
esoomllub 2031 days ago
http://www.esoomllub.comI’m not quote sure what he means with his self assured “but time has proved us right.” line about sponsored themes. I’ve not really seen or heard of blogs getting blasted for having sponsored links in their footer.
If you take the paid links argument to the extreme like some of the zealots, every link to wordpress.com on the bottom of EVERY wordpress blog is nothing but a paid link. aka… you can use our software for the price of your linkjuice. So should every wordpress blog out there lose some PR? Jeez… that’s stupid as hell.
Libertate 2031 days ago
http://www.tincap.comMatt might not have sold any links, but just the irk him they popped his PR. Just the egg him on.
I can see a couple of Goog heads sitting and watching some of us foaming at the mouth about PR change and such as it relates to link sales.
Sort of like young boys with a magnifying glass and ants… (or for the younger generations, like Jackass/stupid human tricks.)
Matt 2031 days ago
http://photomatt.net/Photo Matt and WP.com were never higher than 8, WP.org was a 9.
Fireblade 2031 days ago
On the subject of PR Youtube was at PR3 for a couple of days before bouncing back to 8 (from where I sit) so this recent toolbar update looks to be still happening. Paying much more attention to traffic and rankings makes a whole lot more sense anyway. As far as talking up your high PR and search rankings, thats one way to end up with egg all over your face. WordPress blogs might be losing toolbar PR but mine still rank and generate traffic.
graywolf 2031 days ago
http://www.wolf-howl.comIt’s easy to comment on other people buying and selling links when you force everyone to link to your product website and your 5 friends website on out of the box installations
Igor The Troll 2031 days ago
I totally agree, the WordPress link to me begging is deplorable, especially when the owner hoots out that he is still on top.
I actually removed phpBB link, because they link to bad neighborhood. I wonder if WordPress, like DaveN said, selling a link or two…
Blah, Balh, Blah…
Vingold 2030 days ago
http://www.vinnygoldsmith.comSponsoring a WP Template = paid link = bad.
So why isn’t it the same with the out of the box WP links? Its a non-reviewed non-vouched-for link – so it too should be bad.
Google has no idea where to draw the line on this. That’s why they want all of us to draw if for them.
- V
Fireblade 2030 days ago
Seems to me like this whole paid link penalty deal has some potentially negative applications, it stands to reason that if you push up against the wall and get a ban then you can surely arrange it for a competitor. Same deal goes for template distribution, build a template with some hidden links for example. I guess this applies more to weaker or less trusted sites but I would be interested to hear what other people think about this.
New Orleans web designer 2028 days ago
http://neworleanswebdesign.wordpress.com/What about designers that create templates and sell them on template web sites, are those paid links?
drmike 1978 days ago
http://drmikessteakdinner.comIt’s funny how Matt takes a stand on wordpress themes with paid links but has no problem with having one of their own sites having such a link.