Millions of Pages Google Hijacked using ODP Feed

The Real Nick W writes "Threadwatch reports that millions of pages are being Google Hijacked using the 302 redirect exploit and the ODP's RDF dump. The problem has been around for a couple of years and is just recently starting to make major headlines. By using the Open Directory's data dump of around 4 million sites, and 302'ing each of those sites, the havoc being wreaked on the Google database could have catastrophic effects for both Google and the websites involved."

Comments

Law of the Internet

[Cytlid]

For every Good Thing, there are at least 100 different ways to abuse it.

Web presence pressure

[gitana]

As web presence -defined as within about the first 10-20 results of a search- becomes more and more important to "success," black hat techniques such as this, to eliminate competitors, will become more and more common. Google, or any other search tool needs to be able to stay above the fray and not be subject to hacks such as this.

Re:Not a surprise

[GoogleGuy]

Hey, if you've run across spammy sites, have you filled out a spam report and used the keyword slashdot? I mentioned in a earlier comment from a different story that you can do this. We got eight reports last time, and the responses are on their way. We do check that data to look for new tricks that spammers are trying.