Jack, this is great post.

You should file it under the "Seedy Spamers" file.

Love the black hats and white hats analogy. It makes want to watch "Red River" with Duke.

lol

*Every* major corporation "games" Google--and so do hundreds of thousands of others. To put it very simply, offering that gaming is a key part of how Google earns money.

Sigh. I find it interesting that JCPenney is now partially owned by William Ackman, who also owns a significant portion of Borders. In both cases, it's the same exact story: instead of improving the actual shopping experience at both venues (including fixing up Penney stores so they don't scream "1985"), it's a matter of silly gimmicks and stunts that backfire.

(As of today, Borders is probably going to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, and I suspect it'll slide into Chapter 7 before you know it. Based on the number of tech recruiter calls I'm getting as of late for positions at the Penneys HQ north of Dallas, where they're trying to fill positions left abandoned by employees getting out while they have the chance, I suspect that JCPenney will be following Montgomery Ward and M.E. Moses's lead before too much longer.)

Texas Triffid - I have been to the JCP HQ in Plano (back in the 90s). It's quite palatial and huge. I suspect the land and buildings would be worth quite a bit. It won't save a poorly run company but it might help the creditors.

LucsAdvo, I agree with you. In fact, it's gotten even more palatial in the intervening decade. Of course, it's being paid for these days by laying off every non-exec with more than 10 years with the company, but it shore do look purty. At least, until Texas decides that JCPenney needs to start paying taxes (we're coming up on 20 years since its headquarters move) and suddenly this site will be completely inadequate for modern operations.

TTR - I cannot really say why I was visiting JCP HQ here but I did have lunch in the executive dining room. It made the Officers dining room of the Federal Reserve Bank in SF look utterly shabby (had lunch there once in the 80s and at the time I was appalled that federal employees ate on fine china with real silver served by uniformed wait staff). The place settings at JCP were far nicer and the service was not only uniformed but expert. I work at a place whose central facilities are nice but far less ostentatious than JCP. Of course, it's far more solvent than JCP.