Comments on: More mysteries from the spamosphere http://bit-player.org/2009/more-mysteries-from-the-spamosphere An amateur's outlook on computation and mathematics. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:37:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: rms http://bit-player.org/2009/more-mysteries-from-the-spamosphere#comment-2085 rms Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:14:30 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=300#comment-2085 wild speculation: maybe they are probes to reverse engineering google's (or yahoo's) algorithms from the analysis of the results.. wild speculation: maybe they are probes to reverse engineering google’s (or yahoo’s) algorithms from the analysis of the results..

]]> By: Larry Hosken http://bit-player.org/2009/more-mysteries-from-the-spamosphere#comment-2084 Larry Hosken Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:33:48 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=300#comment-2084 "Why did the splogger bother to alter the text at all?" Maybe they wanted to fake expertise without being detected as "duplicate content". http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359 (Though I work for a search engine company, I don't speak for it. Nor am I especially knowledgeable about spam, and you should take what I say with a grain of salt.) "On these pages there are no links to Amazon" The page http://industries6docs.blogspot.com/2009/02/infrastructure-field-guide-to.html has a similarly-tweaked review of Infrastructure. It has an Amazon purchase button. It also shows ads; if a user clicks those ads, then the page author makes money. It seems unlikely that such a site would make money--but it's pretty easy to generate such a thing, so it seems likely that someone would try. “Why did the splogger bother to alter the text at all?”

Maybe they wanted to fake expertise without being detected as “duplicate content”. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359

(Though I work for a search engine company, I don’t speak for it. Nor am I especially knowledgeable about spam, and you should take what I say with a grain of salt.)

“On these pages there are no links to Amazon”

The page http://industries6docs.blogspot.com/2009/02/infrastructure-field-guide-to.html has a similarly-tweaked review of Infrastructure. It has an Amazon purchase button. It also shows ads; if a user clicks those ads, then the page author makes money. It seems unlikely that such a site would make money–but it’s pretty easy to generate such a thing, so it seems likely that someone would try.

]]> By: Seb http://bit-player.org/2009/more-mysteries-from-the-spamosphere#comment-2083 Seb Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:10:53 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=300#comment-2083 Yes. Yes.

]]> By: brian http://bit-player.org/2009/more-mysteries-from-the-spamosphere#comment-2082 brian Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:07:45 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=300#comment-2082 Within an hour of posting the item above I received another Google Alert with the familiar snippet of text: "You need to know that Group Theory in the Bedroom and Other Mathematical Diversions is an beautiful product!" But on closer examination I realized it was a pointer to <em>this</em> page. Does this lend credence to the hypothesis, mentioned in the strange-corners-of-the-web item referenced by Carl Witty, that the real purpose of these weird sites is just to get discussed by folks like us? Within an hour of posting the item above I received another Google Alert with the familiar snippet of text: “You need to know that Group Theory in the Bedroom and Other Mathematical Diversions is an beautiful product!” But on closer examination I realized it was a pointer to this page. Does this lend credence to the hypothesis, mentioned in the strange-corners-of-the-web item referenced by Carl Witty, that the real purpose of these weird sites is just to get discussed by folks like us?

]]> By: Carl Witty http://bit-player.org/2009/more-mysteries-from-the-spamosphere#comment-2081 Carl Witty Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:04:59 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=300#comment-2081 Your second set of pages (the ones that use the thesaurus) sound a lot like what's described here, along with speculations about the purpose: http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/02/strange-corners-of-web.html Your second set of pages (the ones that use the thesaurus) sound a lot like what’s described here, along with speculations about the purpose: http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/02/strange-corners-of-web.html

]]> By: Barry Cipra http://bit-player.org/2009/more-mysteries-from-the-spamosphere#comment-2080 Barry Cipra Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:45:06 +0000 http://bit-player.org/?p=300#comment-2080 That peculiar, precipitous decline in your spam accumulation graph late last year makes me wonder, have you considered cross-correlating your spam index with the Dow Jones? That peculiar, precipitous decline in your spam accumulation graph late last year makes me wonder, have you considered cross-correlating your spam index with the Dow Jones?

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