Has RapGenius been getting away with cloaking?

22 points

12 years ago

This is a type of URL that RapGenius ranked very well for before the assassination: http://rapgenius.com/35640/The-notorious-big-suicidal-thoughts/I-like-black-timbs-and-black-hoodies

That page, along with many others for every song, 301s back to the full song for a user with an anchor for the specific line/note.

However, Google keeps the URL that redirects as a top search result and keeps a text only cache that looks like this: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://rapgenius.com/35640/The-notorious-big-suicidal-thoughts/I-like-black-timbs-and-black-hoodies&strip=1

If this isn't cloaking, why is Google keeping a URL that 301s in their SERPs, giving it top ranking, and keeping a separate cache?

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