Here's how one might go about crushing roulette.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNzvpFcJXU4
When you link to goofy sites like this, please go to the advanced editor and change the option to automatically parse urls. Readers can still copy the link to a browser to see the page -- but, we won't be contributing to their Google respectability.
"I don't think outside the box; I think of what I can do with the box." - Henri Matisse
Norm,
When you say "goofy sites like this", do you mean YouTube in general, or specific videos?
Regarding Google's respectability, I understand you are referring to SEO statistics, but in this specific case...YouTube is owned by Google, and the number of referral links to a specific video won't actually impact the likelihood of that video appearing when searching for it on Google, but rather the keywords in the video itself well. IE: Roulette, derren brown, how to take down a casino, etc. It is already the top search result for "how to take down a casino", due to that being the title of the show. Hits on a video might impact how people using the YouTube search bar are served the video, and robots blindly following URLs (AKA: Google, Bing, etc indexers) won't contribute to hits or views on the video itself. (Of course due to how YouTube now custom tailors what videos it suggests to you, this may not even matter.)
That said, I am all for not allowing direct hyperlinks on this site. It's way too easy to embed fake URLs or have URL shortening services that can lead to malicious drive-by or XSS attacks. Plus, for some infuriating reason, the default behavior of many browsers no longer includes the ability to hover your mouse over a URL to reveal the true URL before you click it. (Looking at you, Safari on OSX)
No one but the shadow and a few folks at Google know how SEO really works. I prefer to believe what they say (with very low confidence) and act with that in mind. I'm OK with pointing to goofy sites, for humor value or even some possible interesting observation. I just don't want it to be an actual link when it looks like it is of no actual value. OTOH, I will accept a link to a competitor if it is of use and not posted by a user that has not contributed.
"I don't think outside the box; I think of what I can do with the box." - Henri Matisse
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