Glowforge finally threw in the towel on their air filter

[Scott Shepherd]

The thing that concerns me is he worked for Google. If you look at most any other laser menufacturer, you can find bad things about it online. Look up the GF and you won't see much of anything. Not because it's not happening, but if my suspicion is correct, he knows how to work the system to keep bad posts about it off the search engines. Whether that's a technique anyone can use or if it's something being helped by contacts at Google, I don't know, but I do know that I've never, in my life on the internet, seen stuff scrubbed as clean as that company is.

[Bill George]

Scott there are companies that get paid to do just that, tweek Google and remove or add reviews as needed.

[Ralph Undis]

The thing that concerns me is he worked for Google. If you look at most any other laser manufacturer, you can find bad things about it online. Look up the GF and you won't see much of anything. Not because it's not happening, but if my suspicion is correct, he knows how to work the system to keep bad posts about it off the search engines. Whether that's a technique anyone can use or if it's something being helped by contacts at Google, I don't know, but I do know that I've never, in my life on the internet, seen stuff scrubbed as clean as that company is.

Up until recently, if you did a Google search for one of the "big three" - Universal, Trotec, and Epilog - the return results would have an ad link for Glowforge on top. They must have discontinued that process, because now the return result is an ad for each respective big three. I follow the Glowforge forum pretty frequent, and now I cannot play more than one YouTube video without a Glowforge ad appearing. I guess that doesn't bother me too much, because I am not going to buy one, and they will give up eventually

You are correct about him being able to work the system. I think it will take a few more years for it to blow up in his face. He is shameless with the "I am sorry we disappointed you again" over and over... He is able to sell to people who aren't willing to take a chance on a Chinese laser, and to those who won't pay for one of the big three. He definitely is good at Marketing and over-hyping, but in reality, he is selling a substandard laser comprised of off the shelf components most likely from China. Supposedly the Glowforge was originally assembled at Flex in CA - see attachment. Not sure they continue to do so.

[Jerome Stanek]

Glowforge can keep a lot of problems off Google because on their forum you have to own a Glowforge to post and the problems don't go beyond that. Also they close the problem before there is a solution. To many can't connect problems for my taste

[Kev Williams]

The thing that concerns me is he worked for Google. If you look at most any other laser menufacturer, you can find bad things about it online. Look up the GF and you won't see much of anything. Not because it's not happening, but if my suspicion is correct, he knows how to work the system to keep bad posts about it off the search engines. Whether that's a technique anyone can use or if it's something being helped by contacts at Google, I don't know, but I do know that I've never, in my life on the internet, seen stuff scrubbed as clean as that company is.

--and we have this--
guf.jpg

Ralph mentions Glowforge coming up on top when googling 'the big 3'... For me, awhile back any laser google put Keyence Lasers at the top...

Note that whoever/whatever biz shows up on top of ANY search whatsoever, is based solely on your comptuer's IP address- YOUR ads are based on where your computer has been surfing most often or the searches it sends out.

Ralph was getting Glowforge because [he follows] the Glowforge forum pretty frequent... And the reason the Big 3 came up eventually was simply because he searched for them. I was getting Keyence ads because back then some yoho on the board was acting like a Keyence salesman, and I checked their website out a couple times. A few minutes ago I googled 'laser engravers' and Boss was on top, with AP laser, Trotec laser, and Epilog laser close behind. Let it be noted that I've typed the names of those four companies recently on this board, and google knows that. After the machine ads came the 'laser engraver' biz ads. Guess who was at the top of the list? Me! And why not, google knows my computer is where my ad edits come from, and making it come up first will make me believe that my ad is at the top of the rotation, the big cheese! I rule! But nope, I won't be first on anyone elses computer, save for a few that are in close proximity to mine. Targeted advertising...

To prove it to yourself, try this: Google something, like sewing machines, or toothpaste, doesn't matter. The go to a couple of the websites that come up. Then go to your favorite website that you know places ads on the sides of the screen. Bet a buck you'll find toothpaste and sewing machine ads...

It's pretty spooky actually, and the reason many people are getting VPN's...

[Scott Shepherd]

Kev, I think it runs a little deeper than that. SMC is massive on it's traffic. I don't recall the numbers but it used to be over a million visits a month. That would push just about anything on SMC to the top of any google searches 9 out of 10 times. I am 100% posiitve their forum isn't getting a million hits a month, yet all the old posts on here about problems with GF never come to the top or even really rank. You can go through page after page of search results and find nothing from here.

There have been some things written outside of SMC about GF and they just never come up in search. That's really more of an active campaign to suppress the bad. But it proves what we said all along, release it and run it all at all costs. Ignore facts, data, and physics in order to get the cash and look like a hero to investors, which is what's been done, in my opinion.