A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web:

This is a pretty amazing article from the New York Times about a guy who has discovered that being an ass to some of his customers is actually paying off in favorable Google page rank. All those forum posts by irate customers mentioning his business name is helping his search ranking:

“Look,” he says, grabbing an iPad off a small table. He types “Christian Audigier,” the name of a French designer, and “glasses” into Google. DecorMyEyes pops up high on the first page.

“Why am I there?” he asks, sounding both peeved and amazed. “I don’t belong there. I actually outrank the designer’s own Web site.”

The only explanation, he figures, is online chatter about his appalling ways.

How much of an ass you may ask? This bad:

“Listen, bitch,” he fumed, according to Ms. Rodriguez. “I know your address. I’m one bridge over” — a reference, it turned out, to the company’s office in Brooklyn. Then, she said, he threatened to find her and commit an act of sexual violence too graphic to describe in a newspaper.

(via waxy)