ShortFusion Blog - Spam

Pointless Comment Spam

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:47:00 -0500

Going through a dry spell of blogging while I adjust to changing job requirements, odd side projects, and annoying distractions, but something I observed last week is bugging me because I haven't been able to reconcile it. For a corporate blog I co-administer I have noticed multiple instances of comment spam that serve no apparent point. I will post some screen shots soon (tomorrow if I think of it), but the gist is that there is a useless comment, an email address (russian, I think), and a web site url that is ... well, they listed "http://www.google.com". In my continuing investigations into SEO, I have heard of strategies of improving the quality of comment spam links by surrounding them with comments containing legitimate links - well, links to sites with pageRank. And maybe this is some sort of weak attempt at that. However, maybe somebody can help solve this mystery; is Google comment spamming, is this particular spammer just an idiot, or is there some virtue to spamming an email address? Update 6/9/2009: Apparently, it was a chinese domain, not russian, but still, what is the point of this?

Google Gmail Is Serving Spam

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:06:00 -0500

Am I just being paranoid is Google's Gmail deliberately trying to feed me spam? I've been noticing for some time now recipes involving spam appearing in the ad/news/spam-pushing area above my messages. [More]

Signs Of Success

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:45:00 -0500

It is a proud moment for any blog owner, to be sure. Today, I had to erase my first comment spam. A tear comes to my eyes as I write this - The site is good enough to be a spam target. Woo-hoo! In retrospect, I shouldn't have been so hasty in deleting it. I could have somehow preserved it; printed it and hung on the wall or something. Oh well, it'll have to be one of those regrets I just live with. Besides, I'm sure that I'll get more. So, again, woo-hoo!