Anybody has this problem on Micro Niche Finder?

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....

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.

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.

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.

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

I usually just disable the background service.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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~(.

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Doesn't seem like the SOC problems with captcha is getting fixed. I woudn't recommend this software to anyone planning on buying it. Just use Google keyword tool and your own judgment - you will be far better off.

The latest version (5.12 I think) is going OK for me.
But I'm using it more "gently" than I used to use it.

cheers,
Eric G.

I have updated my version of mnf now, and it seems to work ok.

I have set maximum courtesy for soc & mob.

Thanks for the tip Moonfish, sounds like a good idea

I've updated, cleared out my temp internet files, restarted program, restarted my pc and I'm still getting "Blocked." No matter what I'm looking for or how long I take between searches, this is an ongoing issue.

BAH! Fudge it, I'm going to write some articles...

I think one must take a look at this thread before going to purchase MNF
I am having the same problem with background queues and to add up I did not find a button to pause or restart queues.This disappointment has lead me to Market Samurai.I I find it the best.

Micro Niche Finder is useless. I sent an email to them yesterday letting them know that I had given up on their tool. I've wasted hours and hours with that useless piece of junk and I'm moving on.

I am using Micro Niche Finder 4.6.4 (someone gave it to me, so it's new to me though an old version) and it won't connect to google at all. I just keep getting the can't connect to the internet error although of course I am connected just fine to the net and have a very fast dsl connection.

The connection wizard in MNF that allows me to connect directly or through IE and tests my connection won't connect to google by any of the 4 methods offered.

Anyone know what's going on and how I can resolve this problem? I've heard good things about MNF but after reading this thread it appears maybe it's not so great after all, and especially if I can't even get it to connect!