Anybody has this problem on Micro Niche Finder?

[Bai_Mike]

I do realise this isn't tech support but just a quick question to ask anybody using micro niche finder if they have got issues with the google block.

I have been getting google block on it for many many hours and it only clears when I uninstall it and reinstall it. Anybody else having this issue and found a way to solve it?? It is very frustrating to uninstall it and reinstall everytime.

[Chris Grable]

Have never had that issue. A couple basic questions/ideas though...

1) Are you using the latest version of the program?
2) Are you on a broadband connection? If so, have you tried ****ting the modem down for a few minutes to force an IP change? might help....

[armadin]

I am interested, are you on a slow pc perhaps ? I had same issue with Keyword Elite after doing a few consecutive searches, no doubt a slow pc will also slow down the fetch process and that just may just cause weirdness with the fetch, my biggest clue was with the one machine when I was uploading files via FTP client to a web server, it was tripping on every file upload and the tried to send each request twice.

This is where market samurai actually shines, though it can be slow a bit, once you get the initial results, everything else can be filtered to give you the main niche keyword and category keywords.

[vicone]

You can get a Google block if you retrieve too many items too quickly, as with the MOB and SOC figures.

This isn't a problem if you do it manually and allow15-20 secs between each retrieval or allow the program to do the work in the background.

Ivan

[sbucciarel]

I always filter my results first to filter out too few local searches. Then I select the keywords I'm interested in and then I select to do the research in the background using the highest amount of "courtesy". You can't just let it rip through a lot of keywords. You will get the Google ban often if you do it that way.

[Bai_Mike]

Is anyone using Micro Niche Finder with Windows 7? Because I'm using Windows 7 and it gives this irritating issue.

Gonna post a more detailed log in hopes that anyone has a solution for it:-

OS : Windows 7
Micro Niche Finder : 4.6.4

Problem : Using Micro Niche Finder and assigning the SOC to background service. The home page of Micro Niche Finder shows that it is getting google blocked. When searching at google using a browser (with quotes), it appears to be totally ok and having no problems.

Solutions tried :
- Uninstalling and reinstall (However, getting "You have 0 saved searches and 8,400 search results")
- Using older versions (4.5.1 and 4.6.2 and 4.6.4)
- Resetting modem and IP addresses

[nick1956]

Originally Posted by magiangel

I do realise this isn't tech support but just a quick question to ask anybody using micro niche finder if they have got issues with the google block.

I have been getting google block on it for many many hours and it only clears when I uninstall it and reinstall it. Anybody else having this issue and found a way to solve it?? It is very frustrating to uninstall it and reinstall everytime.

well it happens to me if i do to many queries fast.Google blocks me .but unblocks after about an hour .also if you have router try unplugging it.

[Bai_Mike]

Originally Posted by nick1956

well it happens to me if i do to many queries fast.Google blocks me .but unblocks after about an hour .also if you have router try unplugging it.

How many queries is considered to be too fast? I put in all 200 and set it to run in the background but it stops right after 6 queries. I had also set the maximum courtesy for it.

[6120]

I recently started having problems but only on SOC requests. I am quite patient with results and only run stuff using the background service. I can run "exact phrase count" with no problems. As soon as I try SOC I get a few results and then it give the block message

The Background Download Service is currently running in the background, but has reported
a Google Block is in effect. Please open a web browser and attempt a search to confirm the block.

Click here to remove the block status if you are not currently blocked.

I am definitely not blocked and can search with no problems. I can even click individual SOC's and get the results with no problem.

If I try the remove block using their link it just comes back again with no extra results. Another thing I have just noticed when trying to research this today is if I just try to run the results without using the queue I keep getting the CAPTCHA come up but it always fails and I don't get a single result even though the time estimate bar continues after the fail (before I get the next one up a few minutes later).

I have MNF installed on 2 machines one Win 7 and the other Vista and the issue is with both. It is definitely something new and interesting to see others having an issue. I was told to clear my IE cache but it's still the same. Also tried stopping and starting the service - again that doesn't help.

It is interesting what magiangel says as that is exactly what is happening to me.

I am convinced it is not due to a ban because I can do everything else on google with no problem.

[lauradance]

This is a new problem MNF just identified w/in last few days. Here is their tech support response which I got today to my inquiry about the problem 6120 mentions above.

If anyone has gotten a work around other than using background queue which I really do not like, please post. Thx.


Laura,
From our testing it looks like Google has become more aggressive with this in the past day or so. When you get the block with no CAPTCHA, shut down Micro Niche Finder, clear all temporary internet files (I use CCleaner from www.piriform.com), then restart Micro Niche Finder. You will get a CAPTCHA on the first one, then it should pull 18 more before blocking again. This is unfortunately out of our control and we are just as frustrated!


Elisa Self
Help and Support
netresultshelp@gmail.com
www.jamesjonessupport.com/help

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: WHF-375644
Department: Micro Niche Finder - Technical Support
Priority: Medium
Status: Open

[vicone]

If anyone has gotten a work around other than using background queue which I really do not like,

I'm not sure whether you consider this a solution but I always trim my list back to those which I consider to be most promising keywords and then obtain MOB or SOC manually; ie, one at a time, allowing 20 secs between each retrieval. This is slow but effective and my list is usually only 20-50 keywords long.

I've done it this way lots of times and have never been blocked by Google since I started doing it.

I also don't usually bother with keywords shorter than 3 words long as I find the short ones nearly always have too many backlinks to compete for.

Incidentally, version 5 of MicroNicheFinder is due out this week and will probably have improved features and bug fixes.

Ivan

[lauradance]

Thanks Ivan for sharing how you use MNF and the update about pgrade this week. I will look for it.

Laura

[FriendlyRob]

They posted this message on facebook yesterday:

"MicroNicheFinder Announcement: Micro Niche Finder is having some issues with returning SOC currently. (captcha comes out after a few retrievals) We are working on the problem and will let you know what will be done it fix it as soon as we have more information. Thanks for you patience -- The Micro Niche Finder Team."

I hope this helps you.

[Bai_Mike]

Sure hope the issue gets resolved soon.

[Mark Jordan]

I usually just disable the background service.

[piper97]

I opened up MNF for the first time in over 3 months and came across the Background Download Service issue. Google brought me to this thread.

Here is what I found:

(1) If I run SOC checks in the background then I get the block as mentioned earlier. However, I can get SOC manually (clicking on the individual links) until the cows come home.
(2) If I run Exact Match Counts in the background then about 75% come back with zeros. But when I retrieve the data by clicking on the individual links I get meaningful data.

Summary:

The fact that the Background Download Service isn't working has nothing to do with Google blocking queries from my computer.

[Bai_Mike]

Anyone got Micro Niche Finder to work smoothly for fetching large number of SOCs? (with background or without background service)

[warfore]

Yes, having the same problem lately, but just got an answer from MNF saying that they have noticed it too. They are working a solution.

[John Rogers]

Originally Posted by piper97

However, I can get SOC manually (clicking on the individual links) until the cows come home.

I tried turning the background service off and clicking SOC manually. Google blocks that method after 18 queries as well.

John

[Terry Edwards]

Originally Posted by John Rogers

I tried turning the background service off and clicking SOC manually. Google blocks that method after 18 queries as well.

John

Same exact thing here. I believe James mentioned in an email that they are working to resolve this with V5 before they release it. Expected to come out any day. Looking forward to it working smoothly again.

[Dunder]

When I used it today, there was a message on the welcome screen, saying they were working on it and explaining it happened after 18 SOC searches and to clear cookies and restart.

Also mentioned that they are trying to find a solution.

[webkc]

I have experienced the same problem with MNF in the last 3 days. It would block after 12 socs, no matter how I set the settings. Hope the version5 would have it fixed. My guess is that Google has caught aggressive search pattern of many MNF owners, who put up one page websites around keywords, so now the team behind it decided to block these types of searches.

[Dennis Gaskill]

What I do is make sure I have something else to do at the same time. I'll run a few searches, then switch to an ebook I'm writing or some other task, then go back in 5 or 10 minutes and do a few more searches, and rinse and repeat. Don't seem to run into blocking problems that way and manage to get a lot done.

[Eric Graudins]

I haven't touched MNF for over a week, and fired it up today.
I don't have background search running.

I did 8 manual SOC retrievals, with 10-20 seconds between them.
A captcha box then came up, asking for input which I did.
Captcha was not accepted. Said I had made an error.

I put in a second captcha, double checked it for correctness.
Same error.

Put in third captcha - same result.

Looks like google has it in for MNF users bigtime.

(Sorry, but having to delete all cookies to get 18 searches is not really a good option for me)

cheers,
Eric G.

[Dennis Gaskill]

Eric, I have that problem if I don't have the background search running. If I start the background search up from the Start/Programs menu BEFORE firing up MNF and I never have a problem that way.

[collywobbles]

No success here with SOC in V5 of MNF. I have used CCleaner, tried private proxies, restarted the service, restarted MNF. It's a real showstopper for me.

[Texjd]

Google has figured out the footprint of several of the keyword research tools and is shutting them down after detection. I've noticed across several. The new release of MNF seems to do better but stay may get blocked after a short time.

There are really two issues here. One is that there are so many users of these programs that dump 200 keywords in a project and run everything. Think about 5,000 users hitting Google 24/7 in background mode (could be 10 times that). Once again the hord is out of control.

That's getting Google's attention so they are taking some corrective action. Can't blame them. It's their servers and data and people are getting abusive.

Plus, SOC, MOB, and exact match can be a quick and dirty assesment but it's the guys on the first page that you need to examine. Some people just don't get it and never will.

And the numbers from Google are suspect half the time too. But people continue to take the numbers for fact. Keyword research is both an art and a science.

I guess I'm just a little cranky today since it's tax day in the US =8~(.

[NiyazK]

there is a new version 5.0 . It might fix this problem

[Bcarter]

I found something even more odd this morning. I was able to get SOC on an older search that I have been working on, but then on the searches I did this AM, I could only get the Exact Match Count.

I never use the background quene and I usually only run one once a minute in between other work I'm doing.

B

[Xio1]

Hello all,

I am having trouble getting the exact phrase count, the soc and the oci. I am not sure what is going on, this has been happening for a few days now. Anyone else?

Thanks,

Eddie

[vicone]

You should find that this has been corrected in the update to vs 5 which was released in the last day or so. It took into account the recent changes made by Google.

Ivan

[tropics]

the new version seems to work fine for me. The unfortunate fact was that I lost my receipt details and had to purchase a brand new version again.

Google has been tackling automation, including auto blogging. Soon things like WPMADGE, SPEEDLINGS, WPUNIQUE, will be worthless too. The mini-site strategy need some tweaking it seems as ranking will be harder to get organically, I suggest to choose big enough niches you can twit about or video marketing as alternatives traffic sources.

[naughtyneo]

I just updated the MNF to latest version. But I am still getting the blocked messages when checking SOC. It does pull few initial searches and then the captcha pops up and that's the end of it.

Probably google is detecting quries on regular intervals. Why not make them in random fashion?

[John Rogers]

I'm on version 5, and this morning I was able to pull one SOC result, but am unable to get any more. I'm also not able to pull exact phrase counts.

John

[Jacko]

Having same incorrect results with new MFN version.
Even with just one manual query.
Always got soc zero!!!
Time for SeoQuake + FireFox + loooong time researching...

[Biggy Fat]

I also am unable to extract any SOC or exact phrase count results. All thanks to Google for changing their SERPs look. I'm sure there will be an update to fix this problem, but until then it's time to do things the hard way.

[vicone]

I've had no trouble getting exact phrase counts but have been unable to get more than a dozen MOB retrievals.

Ivan

[Biggy Fat]

MNF has been updated, so the problem has been fixed.

[vicone]

The slow retrieval of MOB is while using the updated version - 5.0.10

Ivan

[Texjd]

I think Google is on to the footprint of MNF and no matter what they do the guys at Google will figure it out.

Too many people are using (abusing) these new tools and hammering Google. Users who go in and do 100's of SOC and MOB searches in the background are obviously p*ssing off Google.

I've never thought the SOC or MOB was very accurate anyway. It's quicker to do a little thinking (reduce your viable keywords down to a small number) and use the Google keyword tool.

When you think about it, exact match is BS anyway. It's the first 10-15 listings you care about finding how tough they would be to outrank.

SeoQuake is being nailed too.

One thing I have noticed going back the Google keyword tool is I'm getting results that are different from MNF. Not sure what's going on there but next time you have a chance check out results from both and see what you find.

I don't see this getting any better since Google is starting to pay attention to any rapid requests that appear the same.

[rememberramu]

I am on MNF V5. It was working fine till 3 days before, but then I have to enter captcha after every SOC check. It asks to enter captcha after one SOC check.

Hope it will be fixed soon.

[vicone]

One tactic that I found helped with Google searches was to disable SEOQuake as it made numerous retrievals every time the browser opened a page on Google.

There is still difficulty in getting the backlink figures (MOB), seriously reducing the effectiveness of the tool for keyword research.

Ivan

[Bai_Mike]

Aw crap.

Just when I want about to plan out the niches for today and this has to happen.

[sunnygal]

I spent quite a bit of time sorting out enough niches for a few months a while ago, and have been working them recently, so I haven't used MNF much recently.

I was expecting to do another extensive research session with MNF soon as I have almost completed all my pre-researched niches, but this may stop me doing that.

[Mary Laine]

Yes, I am having this problem too! A total pain

Originally Posted by rememberramu

I am on MNF V5. It was working fine till 3 days before, but then I have to enter captcha after every SOC check. It asks to enter captcha after one SOC check.

Hope it will be fixed soon.

[terryd]

Originally Posted by Mary Laine

Yes, I am having this problem too! A total pain

It's at the point now where it's rendering the software useless as having to enter the captcha after every query is very frustrating

[Texjd]

I quit using it except to go back to look at prior searches. It's useless as it stands now as far as making quick assessments.

I went back to using the Adwords tool and noticed that the numbers from there no longer match the MFN numbers, at all.

That renders the software absoletely worthless if the numbers are totally inaccurate.

I think Google has figured out what to do to stop these tools from impacting their search engine, and you can't really blame them. There are at least 3-4 tools that search on Google and I would imagine it's not making them very happy.

On the positive side the new version of Google's Adword tool has some pretty good new features and I'm getting pretty fast at using it quickly.

[Texjd]

Just got an email from James Jones about this problem with SOC. Let's see, I first noticed it in the first week of May with the latest update. Today is June 18th.

I imagine they have been getting complaints since early May and they are just responding to them. I would include it here but it just recounts the same thing that has been said in this thread about the problem. And they are working on several possible ways to fix.

That's on a major flaw that renders the tool almost worthless for any kind of serious research into competition on the keywords. I would recommend anyone thinking about buying this tool until wait they come up with a viable solution.

[Texjd]

Aor all you MFN users I'd highly recommend you go do a seach in the actual Adwords tool after you do a search with MFN and see if the results match.

Mine don't, not even close on several recent searches. Not sure why but this is getting very irratating to go check numbers everytime. Sometimes they match, sometimes they don't. Now maybe I'm picking the exception to the rule every once in awhile but it's been getting more and more hard to trust MFN.

This really started a few months ago but in the last 30 days I've noticed it getting even worse as far as the difference goes.

[Scott Parker]

Must say this is quite dissapointing for me - I only purchased this software 2 months ago, and now it is virtually useless.

I am careful to only retrieve 1 result at a time, but almost never get a result back. I click SOC next to a keyword, the swirly java thing does its thing, and then the original SOC link re-appears.
Can't even return phrase counts, and I don't have a Google block in place.

Funny that the free keyword research tool in Market Samurai works fine.

Seems it might now be the keyword tool of choice?