Talkings of a Tyrant

Niall Kennedy has posted how he sees Google as a “spam suite primer.” The main reasons he gives are:

1. A host: Blogger’s CAPTCHA doesn’t work. A CAPTCHA is a picture that looks like a string of letters, that, in theory, humans are able to read, but computers aren’t. However, there are getting to be some pretty sophisticated systems out there, and many CAPTCHAs are becoming inefficient.
   

   And when computers don’t work, there are a lot of poor people willing to spend all day getting past CAPTCHA’s for low pay.

2. A Rank: Google search is a great way for splogs (spam blogs) to target key words in order to boost their rankings.
3. Money Google Adsense pays well. Especially with the high keywords gotten above.

I find myself agreeing to all three of these. Google needs to more aggressively attack spam blogs. Right now, they are doing little but promoting it.

However, they have a great idea in the flagging system, which utilizes the masses in identifying splogs. At the top of any Blogspot blog, there is a “Flag” button which viewers can click if they think that the blog contains “objectionable content.” Google still needs much more in preventing spam, but it is still a great idea.