I know this is coming a little late, gang, but we asked Bob Rains what he thought about all of this, and this was his reply (salty language warning!):
“To be clear, what the people on the forum are really taking about is Google Hand Jobs, which is what you call it when Google Human changes the serps to remove a problem site. Google washing is when you make an effort to clean up your bad links and tactics from past efforts to avoid a Google penalty, or to remove one.”
So Googlewashing is something different than what we’ve been discussing here, it seems.
Regarding the main point of the article — that Google personnel performs some selective editing here and there — does that really surprise us? It’s not that big of a shock, considering the company has made it pretty clear that it wants to start customizing the process. (Take Google SearchWiki, for example.)
Then again, if it’s something they started to do on a larger scale — and to all results, not just those for specific user accounts — this could wreak havoc with the SEO industry.
Me, I’m also curious about Google’s motives. Are they doing this for quality control, or because it will give them even greater control over an industry they already absolutely dominate … ?