MS Research Automates Search Engine Spam Hunt 68
Barbie Dollar writes "Researchers at Microsoft are working on an ambitious new project to hunt down and neutralize large-scale search engine spammers. The project, called Strider Search Defender, automates the discovery of search spammers through non-content analysis. The project integrates technology from two previous Microsoft Research prototypes (Strider HoneyMonkey and Strider URL Tracer) and promises a new approach to removing junk results from search engine queries."
This just in..... (Score:5, Funny)
More at 11.
Re:I don't believe it (Score:1)
Re:This just in..... (Score:1)
Still seems reactive (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not an either-or situation (Score:5, Insightful)
These are not mutually exclusive goals. If you take away any incentive for spamalizing content (meaning, not only does it not boost your search placement, it penalizes you), then much of the pressure to run botnets and crack servers goes away.
Re:It's not an either-or situation (Score:2)
Much like our spam emails have adapted and (mostly) overcome spam filters, link-farm search-hogs will adapt too.
As much as we'd like to remove the root cause, nobody's going to fix "greed" anytime soon.
In the meantime, like spam, we can make it more difficult for them to do business.
Re:It's not an either-or situation (Score:2)
Bragging rights didn't include 10,000 more traffic trying to sell fake drugs and bogus Rolex watches and pay-per-click on pr0n ads. It's just not the same, scale-wise. People who own 500 domains that are all stuffed with search spam content aren't in the bragging rights game, I think. But of course, more and better security/practices is worth it no matter what, and not just on MS's part.
Ultimately helps AdWords and Google...maybe (Score:1)
A side effect is better search results, which would increase use of Google again. Where is MSN Search in all of this...I don't know. But fewer of those crap sites, the better.
Re:Ultimately helps AdWords and Google...maybe (Score:2)
While google was developing online applications we weren't really waiting for, Microsoft correctly found the main spot of irritation in search results, and if they will manage to automatically remove those and provide the search results people want (not just the sponsored shit msn search has shown i
Re:Will they share? (Score:1)
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
What do you mean by "allowed"? What legal means are available to this global community you speak of that would allow it to take by force something that is a trade secret?
Re:Will they share? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
In fact I have read the research that this is based on and must say that there is absolutely nothing new or innovative - just a lot of number crunching trying to solve a complex problem in the most direct way possible - by throwing
Re:Will they share? (Score:4, Insightful)
Second, what business rationale is there to give away a competitive advantage (after spending millions to get it) in the very competitive search market, where, by the way, Microsoft is not the market leader?
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
Google creates novel applications like MapReduce and GFS all the time. And, as usual, Microsoft is right there to incorporate the best ideas from Google and Yahoo into their search product. If only we could get Microsoft to embrace Open Source like Google has.
Those Bastards!
Who are they to spend millions of their own money to hire the best minds in the business and the
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
Why should they? You shouldn't want them to. (Score:3, Insightful)
Their purpose is to make their own search engine more effective for users, thus generating more traffic for them. A nice side effect would be that Yahoo and Google, etc., would feel more pressure to integrate similar technologies into their own engines. As usual, competition produces the best results.
Re:Why should they? You shouldn't want them to. (Score:2)
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
Probably about the same odds as Google sending Yahoo and MSN detailed specs of thier search algorithums or the 2008 Republican presidential candidate going out and campaigning for the Democratic candidate or the US shipping Iran a fully functional atomic weapon production facility
Re:Will they share? (Score:2)
Long Live Competition!
This is how these markets are supposed to work. Let the smartest/best company with the best product find success and enjoy the fiscal rewards.
If MSN can out-do Google, I'd move my search traffic there in a heartbeat. Of course Google won't let that happen, WE THE -CONSUMER- WINS! This isn't communism, no reason that a company should have to give their competition their work if they put the effort into solving a problem/finding a solution.
Re:Will they share? (Score:1)
Not before time. (Score:2, Interesting)
At the same time, I'm all for search engines blacklisting people who game the system, parked domains, crap aggredator pages, etc. It's all about building a better mousetrap.
But I thought.. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Strider Hiryu (Score:2)
Not so, I'm afraid -- he will never leave Eurasia alive.
Cover-up (Score:2)
Re:Cover-up (Score:3, Funny)
Go Microsoft! (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully, Microsoft's approach will give some effect and push other operators to work harder on preventing the web spam.
Amusingly, you're most likely getting affected only if you're searching for penis pumps, pornographic content and gambling.
Re:Go Microsoft! (Score:1, Interesting)
And cracks, keygens, and warez.
Re:Go Microsoft! (Score:1)
Re:Go Microsoft! (Score:2)
M$, Google and friends might actually drag them so far around illegitimacy they come back to legitimacy. Ironic, no?
Human Powered? (Score:4, Interesting)
Dangerous. (Score:2)
This is exactly what happens in email. You say "Oh! I can filter 99% of my spam by grabbing anything with 'Viagra' in the subject line!"
The spammers, noticing this, start using subject lines like "Urgent! Read now!"
You adjust your filter to watch for anything with "Urgent" in the subject line and "Viagra" in the body.
They send you Vi.ag.ra instead. You catch that, they send you Vlagra.
They send "Penis pills". You filter anything with "Penis". Then your freind changes their signature to "The
Re:Dangerous. (Score:2)
This is different because it is more difficult to set up a web site and domain (and build links to get in the top search result pages) than shoot off an email. Thus you are flagging the sites themselves, not the particular 'trigger words'.
Do a search for 'buy mobile phones' or some such crap.. look at the top 10 results or so. If they are obviously spam sites then flag them, and their entire domain. Have regular go
Re:Dangerous. (Score:2)
Are you sure? DNS is BIG, and I'm pretty sure you can automate buying domains -- they're pretty cheap, too. Also, remember that whois info can be faked, and often is (deliberately) by sites like GoDaddy to say that GoDaddy owns the domain, hiding the info of whoever really controls/
Re:Dangerous. (Score:2)
Re:Human Powered? (Score:1)
Re:Human Powered? (Score:1)
if it works (Score:1, Flamebait)
Of course, with their track record of Neat Ideas vs. Actual Products, (WinFS, etc.) I'm not holding my breath.
I am, however, wishing them luck.
Non-content based comment spam prevention (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Non-content based comment spam prevention (Score:2, Insightful)
During three days I logged a lot of actual (and logged in) users being blocked... then I tried to spam my own site by using opera and a fake user-agent + elite proxy and I had no problem doing that...
So yes, I guess it has the qualities required to be a good microsoft product.
Good. (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember the first time I saw google - I was blown away: "Wow. These results are exactly the web pages I was looking for!" But that's no longer the case when you search in google. They've really fallen behind in being able to separate out (or, as they say, "search for") the pages I want from the junk.
I hope google will win this war, but maybe microsoft chucking some money at the problem will help light a fire under google to get this fixed before someone else does it better. If searching at google no longer brings me relevant results better than any other source, I'm gonna start looking for somewhere else to search. Just like I did when I switched to google from yahoo back in the twentieth century.
Re:and shut down? (Score:1, Insightful)
For reference:
(a) What does shutting down Windows boxes have to do with searching for search-engine spam?
(b) How does search-engine spam "find" you?
Could it possibly be that you saw the word "spam", and your brain shut off while you wrote a nonsensical post that might just have made s
we can only hope (Score:2)
yay for MS research!
Experimental... (Score:1)
How about filtering domain kiters (Score:1)
Re:How about filtering domain kiters (Score:2)
I do agree that extremely new sites with weird domains names should be scrutinised before entering the engine.
Good stuff, but not a big deal in Release 1 (Score:1)
But it does nothing to address the vast majority of the pages that contaminate search engine results. I'm referring to automatically generated pages that look like good pages and hence rank well in search engines, but really have little except links and perhaps some public domain info. E.g., there could be one each for every resort hotel in Mexico. The search engine result turns up a summary that makes it look like there a
hmm... (Score:2)