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September 22, 2006
Brilliant spam
Brilliant spam: Check out the following attempts at increasing Google findability, and sharing Google's advertising revenue. This June post of mine about improvements to Yahoo Groups search of mailing lists received spamtext which talked (albeit incoherently) about Yahoo. The URL attached, "creekrugby dot com", looks legit at first glance... a little strange to blend golf and rugby assets together, maybe, but it looks legit. But when you take some of the intro text at the top and search for it, like "which targets the grip strength and the active mindedness of a player", up pop a couple of clear spamming incidents with the same text. A "link:" test on the site removes doubt. But the spamtext I'm hosting is apparently new content, as searches on phrased like "boon by yahoo also as usual" show. My contempt for the spammer is vast, but it's Google's lack of administration of their advertising program which is the enabling factor here -- at some point their advertisers will realize what they're really paying for, and revolt. In the meantime, though, the rest of us who work with information are the ones paying the price. Google must shape up, and test the sites with whom they're sharing advertisers' money.
Posted by JohnDowdell at September 22, 2006 07:06 AM
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Comments
Thanks for the trackback, but it was actually Tom Keating (me) not Randy Savicky. Randy is just a contributor to my blog, but I write the vast majority of the content.
If you could update/fix, I'd much appreciate it.
Thanks!
[jd sez: Yup, sorry... I had scrolled up and down the blog, looking for whose words these were, and saw Randy's name (and presumably picture) next to it in small type. Later I saw your name in the URL. Frequently I have to WhoIs a blog to find out who is speaking. I like to attribute things properly, but some times it's hard. ...But, hmm, this comment seems like it's to the wrong entry.... ;-) ]
Posted by: Tom Keating at September 22, 2006 08:35 AM
Update: BusinessWeek has a high-profile article today detailing the various aspects of the scam.
I don't buy advertising myself -- I'm mostly concerned with how such fake webpages from Google partners are destroying the ability to find legitimate weblog comment. They're polluting the infosphere.
Posted by: John Dowdell at September 22, 2006 12:44 PM