Microsoft Tracks Down Mass Fake Web Pages

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article on New York Times, Microsoft researchers have discovered tens of thousands of junk Web pages, created only to lure search-engine users to advertisements. While most of us have run across them from time to time, the company researchers have found the pages are deliberately generated in vast numbers by a small group of shadowy operators. By following the money trail, Microsoft researchers were able to track the flow from big-name advertisers to search engine spammers. Many use Google's blogspot.com to set up spam doorway pages. 'The practice has proved to be a vexing problem for the major search companies, which struggle to prevent both spammers and companies specializing in improving legitimate clients' Web traffic -- a field known as search-engine optimization -- from undermining their page-ranking systems. Surprisingly, the researchers noted that the vast bulk of the junk listings was created from just two Web hosting companies and that as many as 68 percent of the advertisements sampled were placed by just three advertising syndicators.' The report is available at Microsoft Strider Search Ranger project page."

Comments

The easy way

[truthsearch]

They could have saved a lot of time and money by just visiting forums like DigitalPoint. These doorways and other spammy sites are for sale every day. It's no secret.

Re:The easy way

[insanemime]

Well it's about time someone tracked down these spammers. I can't count how many times I was searching for porn on the internet and got an ad page. The nerve of some companies.

Why?

[Herkum01]

Is it really cheaper to use Page Ranking companies instead of just well, PAYING for an advertisement on Google or MSN or something?

Re:Why?

[Frosty Piss]

Is it really cheaper to use Page Ranking companies instead of just well, PAYING for an advertisement on Google or MSN or something?

Yes, or they wouldn't do it.

Re:Why?

[fruey]

The average return on investment on Search Engine Optimisation (generally: increasing your search position on specific keywords relevant to your business) can be about 10x more than the return on keyword purchasing, which can cost 0.30c - several dollars. Every click costs money.

Once you've optimised to your keywords in "natural search" e.g. *free* results, then your investment keeps paying (you need to maintain positions of course, but this is lower cost, especially if you're in a niche) whereas in paid advertising you have to keep giving money to Google and, in competitive industries, your cost per click will be subject to significant inflation...

"time to time"?

[Frosty Piss]

While most of us have run across them from time to time...

Time to time? For mee it seems like more than 50% when I scan the search results. Maybe less, maybe more, but certainly more than "time to time". For many of my searches, I may not find anything truly relevant until the second and third page. People have learned how to play Google to the point where more and more Windows Live is starting to give better results (scary!).

Re:"time to time"?

[hobo sapiens]

I agree. I run a small business out of Nigeria that helps people in unfortunate situations recover lost money, and we rely on upfront investments from Americans. We always promise a good cut of the money to our American investors. This search engine spam really puts the hurt on my business, too.

Re:another ripoff

[eldavojohn]

The report is available at Microsoft Strider Search Ranger project page.

Man. This Microsoft project is just a ripoff of Google's Gandalf Search Wizard project...

Yeah, but let's not forget that even before that was AOL's Smeagol Browser Gollum project ...

Nice work

[MysteriousPreacher]

There's actually some pretty decent research here. The site cloning report is a good read.

http://research.microsoft.com/SearchRanger/Spam_At tack_by_Website_Clones.htm

The cloning of popular blogs as been a scourge for a while now, both for manipulating search engines and good old fashioned advertising - using someone else's content to draw visitors in

Then Microsoft realized...

[physicsboy500]

It's coming from inside the building!!!

Obligatory Bill Hicks

[Thaelon]

Obligatory Bill Hicks...

If you work in advertising, kill yourself.
--Bill Hicks - Another Dead Hero

Microsoftie wearing a white hat?

[CodeShark]

I just finished reading how much the Strider group at M$ has accomplished and how, and it is rather amazing. They lifted the covers off of typo-domain squatters exploiting Google's programs, a progressive honeypot setup that detects which levels of XP are attackable by different mal-ware attacks (up to and including reporting zero-day exploits if the latest "patch hardened" machine is exploited], and now this project. Even better, they are publishing the "how", and any OS (AKA Mac OS or any of the Linux distros) could benefit by using similar approaches on even more machines.

So -- from an admitted open source advocate -- here's a rare kudo to the giant in Redmond for keeping a "white hat" and his group -- and letting them work.