How far would you go to be a famous celebrity?

You only have to see one of the spate of pseudo-reality shows to realize that some people will violate any standard of decency or do pretty much anything to enjoy the perks of the entertainment spotlight. For most of us, an innate sense of personal standards and pride would prevent us from doing some of those pretty outrageous things.

Let's lower the bar a little. How far would you go to be "almost" famous?

Lowering the bar a bit more: How far would you go to simply be recognized? Still lowering that bar...

OK, forget TV.

How far would you go to artificially inflate your website's Google search results? Would you violate the rules of engagement that Google requires? Would you intentionally misrepresent the contents of your website in order to make up for a presumed lack of quality information that attracted genuine web activity?

Is the internet really just a frontier with no code of ethics?

Well, apparently, at least one company in our industry thinks so, and will do just about anything to gain the favor of the web search deity. "Behold the Mighty Google". There are companies out there that intentionally cheat the system in effort to get more visitors to their websites.

We're taking bets that if ASTi repeated various key words on every page of our website (there are currently almost 600 of them), our Google page ranks would jump significantly, too. That's what this other company is doing; on every single page of their website, they have two hidden paragraphs reading:

HLA Radio, DIS Radio, Radio Simulation, Simulated Radio, Simulated Audio, Audio Simulation, HLA, DIS, SINCGARS, Simulation and Training, Network Radio Simulation, Simulated HLA Radio Software, Simulated DIS Radio Software, Simulated HLA Radio Network, Simulated DIS Radio Network, DIS Radio, HLA Radio, Simgars, DisComm+, Network Audio, Voice, Simulated Network Communication, COMLab

HLA Radio, DIS Radio, Radio Simulation, Simulated Radio, Simulated Audio, Audio Simulation, HLA, DIS, SINCGARS, Simulation and Training, Network Radio Simulation, Simulated HLA Radio Software, Simulated DIS Radio Software, Simulated HLA Radio Network, Simulated DIS Radio Network, DIS Radio, HLA Radio, Simgars, DisComm+, Network Audio, Voice, Simulated Network Communication, COMLab

And, apparently, they're afraid that just mentioning ASTi on their website will do damage to their rankings. Because, on one page where DACS compatibility is listed, they've added two more hidden paragraphs:

Radio Simulation, Simulated Radio, Simulated Audio, Audio Simulation, HLA, Simulation and Training, Network Radio Simulation, Simulated HLA Radio Software, Simulated DIS Radio Software, Simulated HLA Radio Network, Simulated DIS Radio Network, David Clark, DIS Radio, HLA Radio, Headset, Simgars, DisComm+, TalkHLA, Network Audio, Voice, Simulated Network Communication, LabVIEW, COMLab

Radio Simulation, Simulated Radio, Simulated Audio, Audio Simulation, HLA, Simulation and Training, Network Radio Simulation, Simulated HLA Radio Software, Simulated DIS Radio Software, Simulated HLA Radio Network, Simulated DIS Radio Network, David Clark, DIS Radio, HLA Radio, Headset, Simgars, DisComm+, TalkHLA, Network Audio, Voice, Simulated Network Communication, LabVIEW, COMLab

Of course, you don't see their efforts to mislead, because those massive blocks of key words are hidden from view.

So we are gaming the system now to offset their unfair advantage by publishing the above content on this page.

You may be asking, "Well, how far would ASTi go to get higher Google page ranks?" The answer: Only far enough to cry foul and expose these unfair practices, only as far as creating this one page that you are reading.

ASTi would much prefer to play by the rules; we believe that real content matters more to our current and future customers than some half-baked attempt to increase the number of visitors to our website. No bait-and-switch here, folks. What you see is what you get. Isn't that what you expect?

But we aren't doing potential customers a service if we let them conclude from a misdirected Google search that a one-man operation is the most prestigious company in:

HLA Radio, DIS Radio, Radio Simulation, Simulated Radio, Simulated Audio, Audio Simulation, HLA, DIS, SINCGARS, Simulation and Training, Network Radio Simulation, Simulated HLA Radio Software, Simulated DIS Radio Software, Simulated HLA Radio Network, Simulated DIS Radio Network, DIS Radio, HLA Radio, Simgars, DisComm+, Network Audio, Voice, Simulated Network Communication, COMLab

Radio Simulation, Simulated Radio, Simulated Audio, Audio Simulation, HLA, Simulation and Training, Network Radio Simulation, Simulated HLA Radio Software, Simulated DIS Radio Software, Simulated HLA Radio Network, Simulated DIS Radio Network, David Clark, DIS Radio, HLA Radio, Headset, Simgars, DisComm+, TalkHLA, Network Audio, Voice, Simulated Network Communication, LabVIEW, COMLab

We like to believe that publishing information that is actually relevant to the issues and solutions of audio and radio simulation will not only help our customers, but enable ASTi to succeed—but it has to be a level playing field.

This page goes a little way towards correcting that. Hopefully, the vendor in question will eventually feel a sense of shame and remove the cheat sheets from their website. Then we will delete this page with a sigh of relief.