Spamflagging SaturSunday

Well, oops, I forgot about Flag Day: we went out for a longish hike (report to follow, with an exciting incident halfway through) and it slipped my mind.

But hey, better late than never. Here’s a quick 100-Next-Blog’s worth. As usual, all links are nofollow. Flag away:

1. foamepi.blogspot.com
   “Internet foam info”
3. interactivevoiceresponselv8.blogspot.com
   “Online interactive voice response articles”
4. enyalf4.blogspot.com: Internet enya guide
   “Internet enya guide”
8. inuyashailv.blogspot.com
   “Helpful inuyasha articles”
11. maplebat7no.blogspot.com
    “Your maple bat resources”
21. indiancurrysecrets.blogspot.com
    “Indian restaurant curry secrets”
23. plantarfasciitisd5o.blogspot.com
    “Your plantar fasciitis resources”
25. toyotacorolla1ox.blogspot.com
    “Free toyota corolla information”
26. drivingundertheinfluencedkf.blogspot.com
    “Internet driving under the influence guide”
36. charliechaplinuji.blogspot.com
    “Internet charlie chaplin resources”
42. dashboardconfessionalqic.blogspot.com
    “Internet dashboard confessional resources”
48. surfboardblogsite.blogspot.com
    “SurfBoard Blogsite—AutoSurf Top Picks”
51. customcoing8x.blogspot.com
    “Internet custom coin articles”
55. darwin3l9.blogspot.com
    “Your darwin guide”
56. eharmony8i0.blogspot.com
    “Your e harmony info”
59. internetsoftwaresaf.blogspot.com
    “Your internet software guide”
60. sugargliderhi2.blogspot.com
    “Your sugar glider guide”
63. softballglovesrmy.blogspot.com
    “Your softball gloves resources”
69. tandembicycles8nf.blogspot.com
    “Free tandem bicycles articles”
72. shuqiicd.blogspot.com
    “Internet shu qi articles”
73. metallicaticketnaj.blogspot.com
    “Helpful metallica ticket resources”
76. skateboardersh2d.blogspot.com
    “Online skateboarders guide”
77. gundamwing2w5.blogspot.com
    “Your gundam wing guide”
78. homecenter9ly.blogspot.com
    “Helpful home center resources”
82. mansionjx9.blogspot.com
    “Helpful mansion info”
84. digestqup.blogspot.com
    “Helpful digest information”
87. memorymxq.blogspot.com
    “memory information”
89. charterleague.blogspot.com
    “charter”
91. anthraxcot.blogspot.com
    “Your anthrax guide”
93. ads33e.blogspot.com
    “Helpful ads guide”
98. chinawomanju4.blogspot.com
    “Free china woman information”
99. lovespellshy2.blogspot.com
    “Helpful love spells resources”
100. aquariusyoy.blogspot.com
     “Free aquarius articles”

Well, so much for keeping spam off Next Blog; today, 33% 32% of the blogs I visited were spam. Pretty poor.

There’s an obvious pattern here: all but 3 2 of the spam blogs look alike. Green “Son of Moto” templates; “guide”, “resources”, “articles”, and “info” titles; owners with a single name, one blog, no profile information; piles of posts containing, and linking to, news articles scraped from elsewhere; and dead AdSense blocks. Someone, or something, is trying to game Google, Blogger, and AdSense on a massive scale, creating fake blogs stuffed full of keywords in an attempt to lure in surfers searching for information and tempt them into clicking adverts. It looks like the AdSense team is onto this; but Blogger clearly isn’t yet.

In related news, all the spam blogs I identified last Saturday, and the Saturday before, are still up. So much for flagging as a community anti-spam action: it seems to make no difference whatsoever.

Biz Stone, writing on Blogger Buzz earlier this week:

Spam blogs are unique in that we have no qualms about rooting them out and bringing them to a desperate and violent end.

Oh really? Well, I’m still waiting.

(And finally: what on earth is a sugar glider? A small Australiasian possum, which glides between trees like a flying squirrel.)

[Update October 23 2005: the proprietor of SurfBoard Blogsite comments to disagree with my categorisation as spam. On second viewing, I'm inclined to agree: while the subject matter and presentation still come across to me as spammy, the the content seems genuine enough. Unflagged.]

Categories: Spam