Wordpress Banned by Google for Spamming

The Real Nick W writes "Wordpress, an incredibly popular Open Source Blogging system was found to be spamming google by inserting hidden links to junk content on high paying Adsense keywords such as mesothelioma and debt consolidation. Following Threadwatch picking up the story an anonymous Google rep appeared in the original thread admonishing bloggers not to use sneaky tactics to rank highly for "duplicate content" such as the 100,000 hidden articles on the Wordpress site. The articles have now dissapeared from Google and it remains to be seen whether Google will ban Wordpress outright as they tend to do when SEO's and web dev's pull these kinds of stunts."

Er...

[ZiZ]

"Mesothelioma"? It's a cancer, I guess (or so Google says), but not one I've ever heard of. How did that get to be an expensive adsense word?

Lots of problems like that...

[chris09876]

Although it's good that Google's taking a step in the right direction by trying to keep their index clean, there are lots of sites who try to spam the index. SEO is a huge 'industry'. Cracking down on some of the big perpetrators is a good start, but more needs to be done if Google wants to maintain (and even improve) the quality of their searches.

SEO

[chiapetofborg]

I work for an SEO company, and we hear about all the sneaky tricks, but it isn't all that hard to be optimized while not pulling sneaky attacks. Google has a very complicated algorithm that take a lot of things into effect. The reason that they rank pages that have certain characteristics, is because those pages can actually be good, they don't have to be sneaky. A very closely monitored network of domains, can get a very high page rank. One need not revert to sneaky tactics to do well.

Google

[Schezar]

This is why I love Google. They approach problems in an intelligent manner.

Problem: Spammers are very obviously trying to muck with our results.

Solution: Block said spammers.

The only problem is that it's hard to notice all but the most egregious offenders.

I've love Google to add a link to the standard search results. Something like "Report Spam." If enough (100k, a million, whatever) unique people/IPs reported a site or result, it would be flagged for human review.

They were begging for it.

[heavy snowfall]

They had a high google rank, and profited(/broke even?) on it by breaking google's terms of service.
Not too surprising that google did something about it.

Wordpress collaborating with spammers ?

[Merik]

I use wordpress on my blog. [jnuwebsites.com]

And i get a loads of comment spam that use keywords similar to the spam words that the wordpress website was hosting.

I wonder if the wordpress website maintainer has aided the creation of spam bots to identify worpress users and post on thier sites using weaknesses of the default install.

Re:Google

[Anonymous Coward]

They have a spam reporting tool, it's just not obvious. One of my biggest annoyances is the ebay redirectors, who always seem to have the first 10 search results on any product.

Re:Google

[brontus3927]

I like the idea for this, but I don't think it could ever be implemented well. First of all, if the number is too small, it would be really easy to abuse. If it was too large, it would be useless. I'm sure Microsoft has enough resouces to get www.redhat.com flagged.

Alternatively (and I'm sure just as difficult to implement) would be a voting system. Allow users to vote on which links had the information they searched for. And figure in a sites vote tally into its rating

Re:Er...

[The Jonas]

True. A couple of years ago books with commercial and government applications and recommendation for asbestos use were selling for upwards of $2000.00 on eBay. Here [ebay.com] is another example of some of the continued interest in collecting evidence in these lawsuits. One of the better selling books back then was "Naval Machinery [ebay.com]" which detailed the use of asbestos in US battleships, etc.

An ebay search for "asbestos" sometimes yields some surprising results.

Re:SEO

[rjelks]

"One need not revert to sneaky tactics to do well."

If Google gives higher rankings to sites that have more links pointed at them, would you consider link exchange programs sneaky? For instance, lots of websites link to slashdot.org, but I doubt that CowboyNeil has a SEO company getting reciprocal links for /. I'm really not trying to flame, but I'd like to understand the perspective from the SEO's.

Are link exchanges just another example of exploiting a flaw in google?

none

[Anonymous Coward]

The current issue of 2600 had a letter suggesting people do exactly what Wordpress was now caught doing. Funny thing is, the letter writer was given a dismissive response, because everyone thought it wouldn't work (at least not for long.)

Re:Er...

[Anonymous Coward]

More specifically, thousands upon thousands of people that worked with asbestos daily did so with the employeer's full knowledge that the shit will either clog your lungs or give you lung cancer--and made no effort to afford them any sort of protection.

This is what we call wanton neglect.... And frankly, I think this is one of the few cases that actually merit sueage.

Geez - what a kneejerk

[Dethboy]

Reaction...

Go here: http://planet.wordpress.org/ [wordpress.org]

Read. Maybe read it again if yer slow. Sounds like the guy was simply trying to raise a few bucks to support what is IMO one of the best blogging apps out there.

Re:Blogger.com

[filmmaker]

That's an interesting question, but I think they may be able to make a reasonable business model out of just the ads. That is, supposing they continue to have so much dominance. The ad model doesn't scale down too well, in terms of true viability and not "vacation money."

their own shit don't stink

[Rinisari]

Blogger [blogger.com] is [blogspot.com] full [blogspot.com] of [blogspot.com] this [blogspot.com] shit [blogspot.com], too [blogspot.com].

Just keep hitting "Next Blog" and you'll find a ton of blogs set up for advertising, just like those.

About time dammit

[onyxruby]

If Google would do this kind of thing much more often, it's results would stop becoming watered down. They should make their policy simple. Googlebomb google and stop getting linked from Google. After a few businesses get nailed and put out to pasture the rest will learn and their results will once more become relevant.

I like Wordpress

[randomErr]

Damn, and I really like Wordpress. I'm using it and Thingamablog as my two main bloging tools. I wonder what kind fallout this means for Wordpress from its developer?

Re:Er...

[ergo98]

My father worked for a couple of decades for Grace [grace.com] in a processing plant in St. Thomas, ON., and of course in his mid-50s he developed, and passed away from, a quick spreading lung cancer caused by asbestos.

Of course the cause was the heavily laced vermiculite (I remember hopping in big bins full of the stuff when I was a kid. It was a really neat spongy stuff that looked really interesting [google.ca]) that Grace was processing at the St. Thomas plant, and they knew for many years that it was packed full of asbestos but decided that lawsuits due to death and injuries were less costly than cutting off the asbestos lined mine.

Anyways, a lot of executives at Grace should have gone to jail for gross negligence causing death, but of course they didn't. As it stands we never did sue Grace, as that sort of case is much less common here in Canada, but I'm sure my father wasn't the only victim.

Well, at least they dont try to hide it....

[imsabbel]

just now from their frontpage:

<div style="text-indent: -9000px; overflow: hidden;">
<p>Sponsored <a href="/articles/articles.xml">Articles</a> on <a href="/articles/credit.htm">Credit</a>, <a href="/articles/health-care.htm">Health</a>, <a href="/articles/insurance.htm">Insurance</a>, <a href="/articles/home-business.htm">Home Business</a>, <a href="/articles/home-buying.htm">Home Buying</a> and <a href="/articles/web-hosting.htm">Web Hosting</a></p>
</div>

what a shame

[Hallow]

First they don't tell anybody about it. Then they stop people from talking about it.

Stuff like this is just sleazy, and calls into question the character of the devs and site admins. Either that, or it's just a really stupid, really immature move.

I wonder if they've realized they've just upset a lot of users, who are now wondering if they can trust the devs and the software they produce anymore. I wonder if they even care.

Re:Next ban eBay!

[Lendrick]

Find CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY on Ebay!

Find COLON CANCER on Ebay!

Find DOWNLOAD METALLICA MP3S on Ebay!

Yeah, Ebay ads suck.

Re:If You Don't Want To Support WordPress After Th

[Stone316]

Or nucleus... I've been using it for over a year and its pretty stable with lots of plugins. I installed a bunch of blog software before I decided on nucleus.

A couple of questions.. anyone have stats out there on which is the most popular OSS blog software? There don't seem to be many comparisons on the web. I've been considering trying some new software but I don't want to waste time with one that doesn't have a good community behind it.

Link: Nucleus Homepage [nucleuscms.org]

Wow

[Amelia G]

Wow, I'm surprised by this. I had noticed Google traffic to Wordpress-powered sites dropping off. Do people think Google has known this for a while and been slowly penalizing Wordpress sites in its listings?

Re:Google Spam Report

[mrchaotica]

Or maybe they got flooded with spam reports, and are still trying to sort them out before they accept more...

Re:Heh

[Valdrax]

Good. Now you've just justified lawyers taking a bigger cut of the victim's settlement to cover costs.
I hope you still have that triumphant "I screwed someone who screws the little guy" feeling.

Re:SEO

[jaydonnell]

"Are link exchanges just another example of exploiting a flaw in google?"

I think your asking the wrong question. The correct question would be: Is there an algorithm that can't be manipulated?

The answer is no so we will always have SEO's. It's just an arms race we have to live with and the best search engine is the one that stays a few steps ahead of the others and this is google for the time being. There is too much money to be made from high rankings to expect this to go away.

Interesting...

[doormat]

I just downloaded WordPress last night - to replace my homespun blog software I wrote back in 2001 (for my blog that I started all the way back in 1996 - it was just me writing HTML for everything). I guess I'll be sticking with my code for a bit longer now, until I find a suitale replacement. I surely dont want to support a company that does this...

Perhaps I'll be even rewriting my software, since I cant find anything that I like.

Re:Er...

[tompaulco]

Just to clarify, vermiculite itself does not contain asbestos. In fact, it is a type of rock in and of itself which, like a ballpark frank, "Plumps when you cook it", becoming a very light rock.
The reason the two became associated was, as mentioned in parent, one particular vermiculite mine had asbestos in it as well. All the vermiculite mines which tested positive for asbestos are now closed down.
I used vermiculite and cement for the bottom of my inground swimming pool (under the liner of course). The result is a bottom that is easier on the feet than a traditional concrete bottom. While vermiculite and cement is not as strong as gravel and cement, it is still able to support a 30 foot water column, which is far deeper than my pool.
Vermiculite is also commonly used as insulation, especially in masonry applications.

Re:Er...

[Lawrence_Bird]

Peter Grace was a ogre. Did you know he packed a gun? This was in the early 80s. As a CEO you would really have to do some bad things to be that concerned for your well being to carry your own gun and body guards.