Actually i do like them for 2 main reasons:
1. The search experience and results become a bit better and I like a search engine to provide me with good results... 'doh!
2. I never ever got hit by an automatic update and probably never will unless I'm extending to far with SEO tests and throwaway sites.
Thing is most people try to game Google with super low quality sites and they complain that Google caught them and penalized them. Well, wtf u expect? I can understand somebody with a great site that complains but most people have shitty 10-page wordpress blogs.
I game Google too but I'd never complain if one of those sites gets penalized. They never did so far because I don't leave footprints and I never try to rank high for big keywords with a blackhat site if it can't trick a human into thinking it is at least decent. I mean I have madlibs that look like hand built sites, those can rank high. Then I have shitty sites like those powered by OpenBH but using my custom script and those I never get too high (dont have many of those though, i prefer to do it right with ultraspun readable content).
A few big problems with most people are:
1. They try to rank fast instead of taking it easy and letting the site age a bit. If you let a site age 1-2 years it will rank for longtails with ZERO links. But you kill the site by overdoing link building.
2. You overdo it with link building. You build too much crap and you do it very fast.
3. You try to trick Google but leave obvious footprints - massive footprints.
4. You have a horrible site. You try to outrank a nice site with a shitty 10 page wordpress blog. Nobody will give you good links naturally if you have a shitty site. I had sites which after I grew them to #1 for main keyword would double in traffic and revenue every year naturally - were that good that people linked to them naturally, including very big authority sites. Don't build a site about "blue widgets", build THE site about "blue widgets" - the same way Google is THE search engine, Facebook is THE social network, USA is THE most powerful country, Amazon is THE ecommerce site, you need to eventually become THE main site for your niche. Yes it is hard but if you're in a big enough niche it is worth it in the long term.
