(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




Spamming Google News

from the sneaky,-sneaky dept

Stories about spamming Google to get listed high up in the results are nothing new, but being able to spam Google News is much more surprising. Google News only includes a few thousand hand-picked news sites, so you would think it's not nearly so easy to get into that index. However, it appears that some spammers have figured out how to do so by putting spam links into the forums on the site of Vibe, the music magazine (in this case on a search for ringtones). You'd think that Google's algorithms would be smart enough to know that the forums are not news, but apparently they don't. Yahoo News also has a similar problem, but from a different site which isn't even a news site. MSN apparently hasn't been tricked yet. Either way, it's a reminder of just how far spammers are going these days to try to show up just about anywhere. At this point, you have to wonder just how much content online is simply made up of spam that's trying to game various search engines. In the meantime, can anyone explain who is so clueless that they actually follow these links in trying to find something like ringtones?

8 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

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  1. Jun 30th, 2006 @ 9:30am
    by hmm

    "In the meantime, can anyone explain who is so clueless that they actually follow these links in trying to find something like ringtones?"


    A majority of people that go to those sites.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Jun 30th, 2006 @ 9:34am

    Bastards

    by Dramasell

    That is just so wrong. And you can read all about it at my.ringtones.com

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Jun 30th, 2006 @ 10:08am

    Re: Bastards

    Dramasell -- You didn't include the cats & coffee warning, so you owe me a new keyboard.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Jun 30th, 2006 @ 10:25am
    by Don

    can anyone explain who is so clueless that they actually follow these links in trying to find something like ringtones?

    LOL, you don't spend near enough time with the "average" computer user. Many, if not most, computer users know less about their computers and the interent than most drivers know about their cars (and ask an decent mecahnic how little most people know about cars). Hell, and decent tech worth his salt would consider me a rank amatuer at best, and yet there are still pelnty of people I know who look at me like I'm some sort of guru or something just because I've learned a few tricks over the last six years.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Jun 30th, 2006 @ 11:00am

    iPod?

    by Rikko

    I'm not sure, but I filled out 100 forms to win a free iPod and still haven't received mine!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Jun 30th, 2006 @ 11:03am

    Free Ringtones...

    Download Free Ringtones NOW!!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Jun 30th, 2006 @ 11:28am

    Free Spam

    by MEoip

    I'll cut out the middle man and let you downloadfreespam.com

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Jul 4th, 2006 @ 8:50pm

    Job posting spam on Google news

    I've seen job postings creep into some of my Google News searches, especially when I sort the items by date. More than a bit annoying.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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