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Google AdSense Meta Refresh Hijacked

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the get-your-laugh-on dept.

aaronwall writes "With the latest Google Update Bourbon it appears that Google has had their AdSense site hijacked in the search results by a meta refresh. In March GoogleGuy commented that this sort of activity usually happens to low quality websites."

4 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. bring in the clowns by jack_call · · Score: 5, Funny
    In March GoogleGuy commented that this sort of activity usually happens to low quality websites
    1. Yes! I've noticed it alot on /.
    2. I for one welcome our new AdSense overlords
    3. in soviet russia low quality websites hack YOU!
    4. I host a low quality website You insensitive clod!(tm)
    --
    This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine. My sig is my best friend. It is my life.
  2. Wha?? by Intron · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I google too much bourbon, my senses get hijacked, too!

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  3. Google cloaking the cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In Googleguy's comment, he says that "spammy" sites with low pagerank are more likely to get "hijacked".

    Recently, Google's AdSense pages made headlines for cloaking - something they rectified by temporarily imposing sanctions upon the AdSense pages.

    It seems to me that the resulting low pagerank for the AdSense pages would quite easily account for the fact that they got "hijacked".

    So basically, Google did something many people (a.k.a. whiny morons) thought was "spammy", they subjected themselves to the same sort of punishment they dole out to "spammy" pages to shut up the whiners, and, as a result, they ended up having the same minor bug that affects "spammy" pages affect their own pages.

    Big deal.

  4. Hey guys - this is a BIG deal by Gieckboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Adolescent sniping is all well and good (this being Slashdot and all) but this should be a big deal to you even if you refuse to take the time to understand the specifics (RTFM).

    Here's what's going on. Google has a flaw in their algorithm in the way it deals with 302 redirects. Instead of following the internet standard of following the 302 redirect to the new location and indexing that, Google sometimes applies the information, PageRank, and Google ranking position of the 302 destination page back to the page doing the redirecting.

    This means that a third-party (usually a shady webmaster) can steal the ranking position of a competitor's site. The original site is usually removed entirely from the Google index further compounding the damage.

    Google has repeated denied that this problem exists (here on /.) but now they themselves have been a victim of a '302 hijack'

    If Google can be hit by it - anybody can be hit by it. This is big enough to seriously f'up the Internet - get it?