Spam blog

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A spam blog, also known as an auto blog or the neologism splog, [1] is a blog which the author uses to promote affiliated websites, to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites or to simply sell links/ads.

Contents

The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors (see made for AdSense or MFA-blogs), and/or use the blog as a link outlet to sell links or get new sites indexed. [2] Spam blogs are usually a type of scraper site, where content is often either inauthentic text or merely stolen (see blog scraping ) from other websites. These blogs usually contain a high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless websites.

This is used often in conjunction with other spamming techniques, including spings .

History

The term splog was popularized around mid August 2005 when it was used publicly by Mark Cuban, [3] [4] It developed from multiple linkblogs that were trying to influence search indexes and others trying to Google bomb every word in the dictionary.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Spamdexing is the deliberate manipulation of search engine indexes. It involves a number of methods, such as link building and repeating unrelated phrases, to manipulate the relevance or prominence of resources indexed in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Link farm</span> Group of websites that link to each other

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metasearch engine</span> Online information retrieval tool

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Blog scraping is the process of scanning through a large number of blogs, usually through the use of automated software, searching for and copying content. The software and the individuals who run the software are sometimes referred to as blog scrapers.

A travel website is a website that provides travel reviews, trip fares, or a combination of both. Over 1.5 billion people book travel per year, 70% of which is done online.

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Forum spam consists of posts on Internet forums that contains related or unrelated advertisements, links to malicious websites, trolling and abusive or otherwise unwanted information. Forum spam is usually posted onto message boards by automated spambots or manually with unscrupulous intentions with intent to get the spam in front of readers who would not otherwise have anything to do with it intentionally.

References

  1. "Wired 14.09: Spam + Blogs = Trouble. Splogs are the latest thing in online scams". Wired.com. 2009-01-04. Retrieved 2010-05-14.
  2. Zhu, Linhong; Sun, Aixin; Choi, Byron (2011-03-01). "Detecting spam blogs from blog search results". Information Processing & Management. 47 (2): 246–262. doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2010.03.006. ISSN   0306-4573.
  3. Yamamoto, Mike (2005-08-17). "Are 'splogs' ruining the blogs?". CNet News. Retrieved 2009-01-31. Cuban, who defines a splog as "any blog whose creator doesn't add any written value," writes: "Go to your favorite blog search engine and type in hair loss. Or you can try Cialis, or Discount Tickets?? You get the idea. Anything that has ever been spammed about is spammed in monstrous proportions in the blogosphere because its so easy to do."
  4. Cuban's original post is archived here .