There are two huge, immediate problems with the nofollow "solution". Long term, there is an even bigger problem.
Because the most troublesome blog spammers use software to spam the blogs, adoption of the "nofollow" tag will increase spamming of blogs rather than decrease it. The spammers will need to hit more blogs to get the number of inbound links that they want, so they simply will hit more blogs.
Legitimate bloggers who have contributed comments to related blogs or give them links and trackback will see their search engine rankings fall. It appears that the big three search engines see this as a good thing, but bloggers who consider the long term implications do not.
In the long term, reducing the search engine rankings for blogs makes blogs and blogging less visible to the world as a whole. This is a concern even for bloggers who get most of their visitors from other blogs. Attrition is inevitable, no one blogs forever. For blogging virtual communities to thrive, it is important for new people to start blogs as other bloggers move on. Many bloggers were first introduced to blogs when they used a search engine and the results showed a blog. Pushing blogs out of the search engine rankings will have a powerful and negative longterm impact in blogging.
Slashdot Mirror
Because the most troublesome blog spammers use software to spam the blogs, adoption of the "nofollow" tag will increase spamming of blogs rather than decrease it. The spammers will need to hit more blogs to get the number of inbound links that they want, so they simply will hit more blogs.
Legitimate bloggers who have contributed comments to related blogs or give them links and trackback will see their search engine rankings fall. It appears that the big three search engines see this as a good thing, but bloggers who consider the long term implications do not.
In the long term, reducing the search engine rankings for blogs makes blogs and blogging less visible to the world as a whole. This is a concern even for bloggers who get most of their visitors from other blogs. Attrition is inevitable, no one blogs forever. For blogging virtual communities to thrive, it is important for new people to start blogs as other bloggers move on. Many bloggers were first introduced to blogs when they used a search engine and the results showed a blog. Pushing blogs out of the search engine rankings will have a powerful and negative longterm impact in blogging.
To learn more go here:
http://netinstitute.com/archives/2005/01/20/blogge rs-cheer-google-as-their-search-rankings-plummet/