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?
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  1. identicon
    hmm, 30 Jun 2006 @ 9:30am

    "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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Dramasell, 30 Jun 2006 @ 9:34am

    Bastards

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

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Howard, 30 Jun 2006 @ 10:08am

    Re: Bastards

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

    link to this | view in thread ]

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

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Rikko, 30 Jun 2006 @ 11:00am

    iPod?

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

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    NGUVU, 30 Jun 2006 @ 11:03am

    Free Ringtones...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    MEoip, 30 Jun 2006 @ 11:28am

    Free Spam

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

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Michael, 4 Jul 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.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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