Slashdot Mirror
MS Research Automates Search Engine Spam Hunt
Barbie Dollar writes "Researchers at Microsoft are working on an ambitious new project to hunt down and neutralize large-scale search engine spammers. The project, called Strider Search Defender, automates the discovery of search spammers through non-content analysis. The project integrates technology from two previous Microsoft Research prototypes (Strider HoneyMonkey and Strider URL Tracer) and promises a new approach to removing junk results from search engine queries."
Sure, preventing search engines from indexing blogspam posts is great. Maybe that's the first step, but it's not going for the root cause - the botnets that run the apps that post/email in the first place, and the compromised webservers hosting order sites.
These are not mutually exclusive goals. If you take away any incentive for spamalizing content (meaning, not only does it not boost your search placement, it penalizes you), then much of the pressure to run botnets and crack servers goes away.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
First, do not be so skeptical. Have you noticed how well Outlook 2003 spam filtering works? I realize the algorithm is different, but based on results, I have to say that it is probable that Microsoft will succeed with reasonable effectiveness.
Second, what business rationale is there to give away a competitive advantage (after spending millions to get it) in the very competitive search market, where, by the way, Microsoft is not the market leader?
All major search engines have been doing this for quite some time. Google is probably the best hunter of them all and the most recent update, which occured on June 27, banned a large number of spammers who had billions of sites indexed. Unfortunately, the war on spam is quite difficult. They spammers are working with non-content pages but it is a matter of time before they start generating non-jibberish content to spam with, too.
Hopefully, Microsoft's approach will give some effect and push other operators to work harder on preventing the web spam.
Amusingly, you're most likely getting affected only if you're searching for penis pumps, pornographic content and gambling.
Full Tilt