Comment spam on Google owned blogs

http://www.SharingMyOpinion.com


I’ve been meaning to write a post about all the comment spam on official Google blogs for a while now, but kept putting it off.
Even though I am reminded (what seems like) a few times a week. One time I even tweeted Matt Cutts about it, but my tweet probably got lost in all the other tweets he gets.

Basically ever since I left a comment of my own on Google’s “Inside AdSense” blog posts on May 21 this year, and opted in to receive emails for follow up comments, I have been receiving an email which tells me what is said in every comment that has been left.
So far not one of them has been genuine, they have all been spam.


What is Google doing to combat the effects of comment spam?




Well having the URL’s nofollowed is great for Google’s index, as it does help keep spam out of Google’s search results, but that doesn't stop the ultimate affect of the spam being left on a trustworthy site.

I know the majority of people can tell the difference, but I wonder what percentage of people think that because Google have not removed it, that its somehow OK and/or may be legit? Then click on the links, visit the sites and purchase items from them.

That’s obviously what the spammers ultimate goal is, I mean they can see that the links are nofollowed by GoogleBot, so I don't think for a minute they are spamming Google blogs for "SEO" purposes.
They simply want clicks, and ultimately sales.

The longer the links are left high traffic, highly trusted sites, the more chance they have of people ending up on their site buying stuff, and if they see in their logs that Google are indeed sending them traffic, then that will just encourage them (with good reason) to keep spamming Google’s blogs.

So why don’t they remove it?

I know that as soon as I get a comment on this blog (which is a blogspot blog using my own domain), I get alerted via email, and if its spam I delete the comment straight away.
But to be fair, my blog gets very little traffic compared to Google's, and therefore doesn’t get many comments so it’s relatively easy to moderate.

Google on the other hand have a network of very popular blogs covering all sorts of topics and services they offer, which no doubt gets tons of traffic and a lot of comments.
So is it possible that they just can’t keep up with the moderation, that its too much work for them to constantly keep deleting spam comments?

My guess would be that they have a day set aside where they go through and clean up all the crap they have ignored/save up over the months.
The oldest spam comment on the “Inside AdSense” blog post I have been following is dated April 28 2010. So it’s obvious they don’t do it very often.

Do they clean it up every 3 months (will it disappear July 28?). If so then that gives the spammers 3 months to promote their crapware.
Wouldn’t it be better to enable moderation of all comments so they don’t get published to the site straight away! Then at their set intervals, they could go through and either except or decline comments that are waiting in queue.
At least then the spam does not get “promoted” on their site while they find the time to delete it.

Blogger does offer a few different ways to moderate comments within the program, but a few more would be handy.
Could adding a "Flag as spam" button help alert blog owners to spam comments? I guess that wouldn’t help blog networks like Google’s if they don’t have the time to go through and delete the comments anyway, but it may help others.
Something like Akismet for blogger would also be a great addition to help combat the problem.If something like that is available, why doesn't Google use it?
After all, they obviously do care about it, they have a massive team devoted to trying to keep it from showing up in their search results.

So why don’t they hire a few people full time to try and keep it from their own blogs which turn up in those search results?

Homeland security presents Disney on ICE

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U.S. government agencies including the "US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE)" and the "Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)", yesterday executed four residential search warrants and seized domain names as well as assets from bank, PayPal, investment and advertising accounts, under the "guise" of a crackdown on Internet piracy.

No doubt the crackdown was "encouraged" by the RIAA and MPAA (often referred to as the "MAFIAA"), but ultimately will be funded by the US taxpayers to help protect the multi million dollar salaries the movie industry executives expect to be paid. (Oh, and to a lesser degree the actors, actresses, writers, grips, etc, etc)

Domains seized in the raids were TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and ZML.com.

NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net, two popular streaming services were also seized as part of the assault.

I have to admit that I haven't even heard of any of these sites except one, the one I did know about, I never new was even breaking any laws.

I can understand them going after sites that were hosting copyrighted files on their servers, but from what I understood about filespump, was that it was just a custom search engine that returned links to files hosted on other sites based on users search terms?

If that's the case and they didn't host any files, then how are they any different to Google, Yahoo! or Bing?

Doing a search on Google for keyword site:rapidshare.com, will return links to files stored on rapidshare that have "keyword" in them. There is nothing wrong with that, and to assume all files stored on sites like rapidshare are illegal, or copyrighted would be wrong.
But depending on what keywords are used in the search, some of the results may be links to illegal or copyrighted material.
So how is that any different to what filespump was doing.

In fact I own a site called uvrx, which is basically just that, a custom search engine.
I designed it to search for files on sites like rapidshare, megaupload etc. I have no files hosted on the site, and the site is not designed to find "illegal" files, but if someone used certain keywords in their search, then links to copyrighted material may be returned in the results.
Both the domain name and website are hosted in the US. Could they seize uvrx too?

This whole "Homeland Disney on ICE" situation has got me a little worried... But I don't feel like I should have to worry about it. After all, lots of people use Google to search for copyrighted files... and Google don't need to worry... do they?

Australia finally gets the Google Nexus One

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On Friday 25th June 2010, just before the close of business, Vodafone Australia confirmed they are getting ready to sell the Google Nexus One. Over 5 months after its US debut.

Release date and price/plan/contract details have not yet been announced, but VHA have said more details, including timing and availability will be announced next week.


UPDATE: 30th June.
Vodafone have now announced via twitter that...

We will be releasing the Nexus One online only tomorrow, there is short supply so be quick.

More information is available on the Vodafone site Including this gem...

The Nexus One will be available from 01 July 2010 Thursday for $0 upfront on the 79 Cap over 24 months (Total min cost $1896).
The Nexus One will be available exclusively to new and existing Vodafone customers by visiting the site or calling 1300 303 130.

Vodafone have also stated in their twitter feed, that the N1 will not be available in stores, or as an outright purchase.

One part of their "Terms and Conditions" that seems odd (or wrong), is the bit that says "Unlocking fee applies".
lol. The Nexus One is not carrier specific, so is not locked to any carrier, therefore an "Unlocking fee" should not be necessary. I have asked them via twitter how they can charge to unlock a phone that's not locked, will update if/when I get a response.

Got a response, They said

The phone is unlocked and comes with no unlocking fee.

So if your in the market for an N1 and you don't mind been stuck on a contract for 2 years, are already, or don't mind paying $79 a month, then your in luck (you can get it from here tomorrow).
However, I still think that its a better deal to buy directly from Google (At least while the Google store is still open). That way your not tied into a two year contract and can choose any plan from any carrier, especially at a time when more and more data intensive devices are becoming available and new plans are emerging or are being tailored to devices like this. IMHO.


For those you that were over the waiting game and thinking about importing your own, it may pay to wait till Vodafone reveal more details next week.
For those of you that bit the bullet and imported one when the first came out, hope your still enjoying it as much as I am :)

Cheers

Google closing the Nexus One online store

http://www.SharingMyOpinion.com

Seems the Google web store set up in early January to sell the Nexus One is closing down.
A blog post by Google's Nexus One board on the 26th April, stated that

on April 30th Vodafone will start selling Nexus One in their UK stores, online, and over the phone. Soon after, they will also begin selling Nexus One in France (SFR), Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

No mention of Australia :|
In hindsight, this post acknowledged what many had already said about the online order process and lack of the 'try before you buy' model of selling a product.
The official Google blog has now confirmed in their latest post, that this is indeed one of the main reasons the web store has not performed as well as expected.

While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone

I suspect another reason for the slow sales was the exclusion of most of the world from being able to purchase the Nexus One.
The post then went on to say...

Once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores, we'll stop selling handsets via the web store, and will instead use it as an online store window to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally.

Depending on whether carriers give customers the option to purchase the phone outright without contract as well as with a contract makes me unsure whether this is just bad news for the web store, or bad news for everyone.
After a quick look at the Vodafone site in Europe, I can't seem to find the option to buy the Nexus One outright. (but it was only a quick look, I could be wrong)

So is this the end of been able to purchase an unlocked/no contract Nexus One (at least initially)?
I also wonder if carriers are going to start loading (and locking) their crapware on top of Android... and if they do, will it delay any OTA (over the air) updates like HTC's Sense does..
I hope not.
With the store confirmed as closing in the near future as well as the pending release of Android 2.2 (AKA Froyo) which is expected to make vast improvements to Androids performance and features, I wonder if the Google web store's activity picks up with a final rush of people wanting to purchase a Nexus One without being tied to a contract!

In all honesty, I have a feeling that this may have been Google's plan all along. Which in turn means I disagree with the reports that claim the web store was a failure.
I think it succeeded in its objective, which was to give people (especially those in America) a taste of an "open/unlocked" phone, without stepping on too many toes (IE: not competing with the manufactures who have adopted Android and the carriers who do deals with those manufactures)

Unlike here in Australia, having a phone that will work (without rooting or jail breaking) on different networks just by swapping out the SIM seems to be a pretty rare thing in the USA (correct me if I'm wrong).
The Nexus One does it well, doesn't have any carriers crapwear installed, gets updates sooner because there is no crapware, and is easily hackable.

Even if not too many stores start selling it, there's still plenty of them already out there. If owners, or even friends of N1 owners, see, appreciate and understand these benefits, they may want the same advantages in their next phone, then maybe demand will start to shift the market in a more open/unlocked direction...
Sure there will always be subsidized contracts, but the choice of buying "outright" not tied to a carrier or contract, may become more of a common option.

Cheers
James