Official Google Blog : Google search and search engine spam

faceblogger

faceblogger

WF Senior Premium Member
Mar 27, 2010
4,045
115
0
From Official Google Blog: Google search and search engine spam

Google search and search engine spam

1/21/2011 09:00:00 AM
January brought a spate of stories about Google’s search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. The short answer is that according to the evaluation metrics that we’ve refined over more than a decade, Google’s search quality is better than it has ever been in terms of relevance, freshness and comprehensiveness. Today, English-language spam in Google’s results is less than half what it was five years ago, and spam in most other languages is even lower than in English. However, we have seen a slight uptick of spam in recent months, and while we’ve already made progress, we have new efforts underway to continue to improve our search quality.

Just as a reminder, webspam is junk you see in search results when websites try to cheat their way into higher positions in search results or otherwise violate search engine quality guidelines. A decade ago, the spam situation was so bad that search engines would regularly return off-topic webspam for many different searches. For the most part, Google has successfully beaten back that type of “pure webspam”—even while some spammers resort to sneakier or even illegal tactics such as hacking websites.

As we’ve increased both our size and freshness in recent months, we’ve naturally indexed a lot of good content and some spam as well. To respond to that challenge, we recently launched a redesigned document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy on-page content to rank highly. The new classifier is better at detecting 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. We’ve also radically improved our ability to detect hacked sites, which were a major source of spam in 2010. And we’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content. We’ll continue to explore ways to reduce spam, including new ways for users to give more explicit feedback about spammy and low-quality sites.

As “pure webspam” has decreased over time, attention has shifted instead to “content farms,” which are sites with shallow or low-quality content. In 2010, we launched two major algorithmic changes focused on low-quality sites. Nonetheless, we hear the feedback from the web loud and clear: people are asking for even stronger action on content farms and sites that consist primarily of spammy or low-quality content. We take pride in Google search and strive to make each and every search perfect. The fact is that we’re not perfect, and combined with users’ skyrocketing expectations of Google, these imperfections get magnified in perception. However, we can and should do better.

One misconception that we’ve seen in the last few weeks is the idea that Google doesn’t take as strong action on spammy content in our index if those sites are serving Google ads. To be crystal clear:

  • Google absolutely takes action on sites that violate our quality guidelines regardless of whether they have ads powered by Google;
  • Displaying Google ads does not help a site’s rankings in Google; and
  • Buying Google ads does not increase a site’s rankings in Google’s search results.
These principles have always applied, but it’s important to affirm they still hold true.

People care enough about Google to tell us—sometimes passionately—what they want to see improved. We deeply appreciate this feedback. Combined with our own scientific evaluations, user feedback allows us to explore every opportunity for possible improvements. Please tell us how we can do a better job, and we’ll continue to work towards a better Google.

Posted by Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer
Click to expand...
 


To respond to that challenge, we recently launched a redesigned document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy on-page content to rank highly. The new classifier is better at detecting 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.
Click to expand...

SB links?

And we’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content.
Click to expand...

That sounds like they're more confident about finding spun content. And maybe autoblogs. Also makes me think of those newfangled source attribution tags?

We’ll continue to explore ways to reduce spam, including new ways for users to give more explicit feedback about spammy and low-quality sites.
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound good at all. It's never happened to me but I've heard plenty of cases where competitors game the reporting system to take out others' sites/assets/networks/etc. That and nothing good will come out of encouraging netizen nazis to report anything they think remotely looks like spam.

I didn't know about the Chrome spam reporting plugin. It's encouraging to see that there are 2500 downloads after four months.
 
thank god i do paid traffic. dealing with google is a pain even when you're PAYING them for traffic. I can't imagine how they'd treat you if you were leeching traffic from the SERPs
 
fuck them, spam still works, they're just being a responsible business and releasing vague responses to the recent complaints about search quality in order to shut up all of the bitchers.

Their original innovations in link based ranking systems were revolutionary and proactive. Now they're simply reacting to technique after technique that spammers and SEO's come up with. There will always be a way to rank so long as they remain the power house for search traffic.
 
Did you hear that loud thud?

It was the sound of half the BST section fainting wondering how they were going to eat next month.
 
They do say this year after year, but they do also consistently implement new things to prevent spam. Of course there is still spam, but it's nothing like it used to be.
 
It's soooo funny reading articles like that lifehacker one's comments.

People are so fucking retarded I re-lose my faith in humanity.
 
dchuk said:
fuck them, spam still works, they're just being a responsible business and releasing vague responses to the recent complaints about search quality in order to shut up all of the bitchers.
Click to expand...
^THIS.

Matt Cutts hasn't breathed a word in many years that wasn't Pure, reshearsed, CALCULATED propaganda made to benefit google's shareholders by calming the waters.
 
Another one : No more duplicate content on adsense sites (But, may be they are just threatening without doing anything really? Because still my autoblog adsense sites are very fine)

AdSense Facts & Fiction Part V: Unoriginal content

Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | 8:25:00 AM
Labels: Facts and Fiction , Program Policies
Fiction: Publishers can put ads on auto-generated pages or other copied content that was not created by them.

Fact: We don’t allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program. This is to ensure that our users are benefiting from a unique online experience and that our advertisers are partnering with useful and relevant sites.

In the past, we’ve talked about tips for maintaining an AdSense-friendly site with user-generated content (UGC). Today's topic is not only applicable to UGC sites, but also to all websites affiliated with AdSense for content.

Sometimes we come across sites that are using software to generate automated content. These sites might look like normal news sites, but the information is completely plagiarized. Scraping content and passing it off as one’s own is not only wrong, but it also happens to be a serious violation of our policies. AdSense depends on maintaining a balance between user, publisher, and advertiser experience. We strive to protect that ecosystem as much as possible by encouraging and protecting unique and relevant content.

Obviously publishers and Google are concerned with revenue generation, and when original traffic encounters quality content, it’s a match made in heaven. The best way to engage users in the long term is to engage users. Provide your opinion on the news, offer a different service, organize your site in a way so that a user is captivated and moved.

Take some time to familiarize yourself with these webmaster quality guidelines, and if you find sites within our network that are clearly violating these guidelines, feel free to report it to us.

One last thing: a quick, but well-deserved thank you to the majority of you that continue to inspire us with your great, unique, and creative content. Keep up the awesome work!

Posted by Cecelia Choi - AdSense Policy team
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom