bruceb news

Previously:
Google Spam
Google Spam – Google Responds

If you are interested in Search Engine Optimization and the business of running web sites, the New York Times has published a must-read article, “The Dirty Little Secrets Of Search.” The paper launched an investigation to discover why JC Penney was ranking number one in Google search results for dozens of words or phrases – “dresses,” “bedding,” “area rugs,” and many more. For months – running through the holiday shopping season – a search for “Samsonite carry on luggage” would show Penney first on the list, ahead of Samsonite.com.

The Times unfolds the story like a thriller, right down to an expensive dinner with the owner of a black-hat SEO company who won’t disclose his real name and speaks “in an animated hush, like a man worried about eavesdroppers.”

Here’s the way the NYT describes the dark side of SEO:

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[…] continued

Previously: Google Spam

Although there had been many articles about the declining quality of Google search results in the last few weeks, Google finally issued its first official response within eight hours after my post last night. Coincidence? Well, I report, you decide, let’s leave it at that.

Google’s response comes from Matt Cutts, Principal Google Engineer, on Google’s official blog. it’s interesting reading. Boiled down to its essence, he says:

• This isn’t a big problem. Google search results are the best they’ve ever been. It’s all a big misperception.
• We’re fixing it anyway.

He describes, in typically vague Google fashion, a few different areas that Google is trying to get under control: “spam on individual web pages, e.g., repeated spammy words—the sort of phrases you tend to see in junky, automated, self-promoting blog comments”; and actions to demote content farms delivering low-level or non-original content. […] continued

Google search results are becoming less useful. Have you noticed?

I started thinking about this last fall, when I noticed that most of the Google alerts coming into my mailbox led to spam sites – sites with no real content other than random snippets vacuumed up from around the web and surrounded by advertising.

Then I started to notice search results that included a lot of fluff – sites listed high in the search results with lots of advertising but no real content. At first it was just a small irritation, but I started to recognize the seeds of a real problem. […] continued

Previously:
Annoying Checkboxes (Microsoft Office)
Ban The Check (Java, iTunes)

This week’s installment of Annoying Checkboxes comes to us courtesy of HP, always a reliable source of installation routines that take too long and bloat your system with too much crud. Now they’ve added a non-standard installation routine that seems designed to conceal the sneaky advertising and crapware that will be loaded onto your computer if you’re not careful.

I was setting up the HP OfficeJet 8500, a perfectly nice all-in-one for small offices. As always with HP, there are more choices of drivers than you expect – in this case, for Windows 7 64-bit, a “Basic Print and Scan Driver” and a “Full Feature Software and Driver.” Note that the “basic driver” is a 241Mb download, which strikes me as being excessive for a “basic driver,” by a factor of ten or so. […] continued

When I moved the bruceb news page to WordPress and opened it up to comments, there was an unexpected side effect: blog spam.

There’s a space at the bottom of each post for comments. I don’t have a big audience and there are few comments from real people. You, my family and dear friends and clients and any of the rest of my fourteen readers, you are always welcome to add a comment. I promise to read all comments, answer questions, laugh at your jokes, blush if you say something nice, and take criticism personally, just like you’d expect.

The spammers find comment boxes on WordPress blogs and fill them in automatically. […] continued

Exchange Defender has a new tool for previewing quarantined messages.

Exchange Defender is the service used by many businesses to quarantine spam and scan incoming and outgoing mail for viruses before delivering mail to the company server. Exchange Defender sends a daily report listing all quarantined spam, as well as providing add-in software for Outlook and an online control panel for reviewing quarantined messages.

(Exchange Defender is well suited for any business running Small Business Server; almost all my clients with Microsoft Small Business Server rely on Exchange Defender. You need a partner to set it up for your business. If you’re interested, drop me a note or give me a call.)

When a daily quarantine report is delivered to each Exchange Defender user, there is a link in the upper right corner leading directly to the online spam archive, where all incoming spam is retained for seven days. […] continued

Desperation leads to scams. Here’s one that turned up today after an investigation by my loyal staff. The “Google Biz Kit” has been around for a while, promising money for working at home. Other names turn up sometimes – “Google Money Market,” “Google Home Business Kit.”

It’s just a scam, just as sleazy as all the other scams over the years. I remember ads in comic books promising I could make money addressing envelopes. I still remember a close friend who was convinced he could make money and earn free trips by selling vitamins after he saw an ad in the back of a magazine. […] continued

Several people have asked me about the most recent variations on old, old themes. Email warnings about dangerous messages, like the one on the right. Newspaper articles about the latest virus.

Nothing is new. The latest threats are the same as the old threats. Let’s go through the basics of PC security in 2009.

• Install updates from Microsoft promptly. (Look for the gold shield in the lower right corner. If you use Windows Live OneCare, keep the icon green.)
• Install antivirus software and keep it up to date.

• If you’re running Vista, you have adware/spyware protection.
• If ypu’re running Windows XP, make sure your security software includes adware/spyware protection, or install Windows Defender.

[…] continued

The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted on Tuesday after a company providing the servers for the spammers was taken offline.

The bad guys install malware on computers that they can control in vast networks, primarily to send spam for counterfeit pharmaceuticals and designer goods, fake security products and child pornography. Approximately 190 billion spam messages are sent every day from more than 1.5 million hijacked computers. The spammers set up servers to control the hijacked computers and to display web pages offering illicit goods for sale.

The spammers don’t buy their own servers. They buy server space from hosting companies, which are shielded from liability in many cases and not directly responsible for the actions of their customers. […] continued

Spammers can turn a profit even if they only get one response from every 12 million emails they send. When you see a ridiculous spam message and think, who in their right mind would respond to that?, the answer is, almost no one – but it only takes a handful of responses for the spammers to think their campaign was worthwhile.

Last year researchers from UC Berkeley and UC San Diego infiltrated a spam network and took over a portion of the network, diverting the spam sent out by over 75,000 hijacked computers (out of more than a million in the entire spam network). […] continued