...managed to put in a link exchange offer in Google Groups, at a thread that was dedicated to "Google Webmaster Help".

Usually this would have made some Googlers really mad and they would have harshly penalized him. But this time, Googler Evan replied in a manner that simply made a mockery of the link exchange.

Here are are some excerpts from the thread at Google Groups:

Link exchange request:

"Dear webmaster,

we are building one way links to one of our client's site http://allinclusive-holiday.co.uk, if you provide a link from your travel and holiday sites to this site,we can give you two back links from the following theme travel, home, webhosting, webdesign, seo, garden and more sites.

I would like to request a link from your websites which has the following standards given below:

1. Your website should be US or UK or .com websites.
2. Link site home page must be at least PR4.
3. Link should be no more than one click from home page and should have at least PR1
4. Links must be on a page that relates to the holidays and travel.
5. No directories or blogs

If You are interested please show me your back links.

Please contact Us: -email address-

I am waiting for your Reply.

Thanks and regards"

Googler Evan's Response:

"Hi CCS,

Our homepage has a fairly high PR and is based in the US, but sadly we do not have any travel-related pages one link away. If you want, you can submit a business proposal to Google here:
http://www.google.com/support/contact/bin/request.py?bdpg=1

When you have the chance, you should read up about link schemes in our webmaster guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66356

Cheerios and Fiber One,

Evan"

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