2009 July | The Social Robot

Archive for July, 2009

Jul 21

The New Generation of Splogs

Splogs, or spam + blogs, date back as far as 2003, when sites that were designed to host spam displayed nonsensical computer-generated text or text stolen from other sites. These early splogs generally contained links to affiliated Web sites. Content was often gibberish and solely for search engine purposes. Blogger defines spam blogs as those containing “irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.” Blogging platforms such as Blogger and WordPress have implemented measures to identify and remove spam blogs.

The term splog is also commonly used in reference to spam in blog comments, including spings, or fraudulent trackbacks. Both blogs and trackbacks that point to spam sites are often easy to spot due to their overtly spammy appearance. But other types of splogs aren’t so obvious.

Search for almost any topic on the Web, and you’re bound to find a blog that looks legit … and yet somehow smacks of insincerity. Blog posts containing poorly written bare-bones text and seemingly disingenuous endorsements of various sites and services are popping up all over the Internet. Is this the new generation of splogs?

Blogs that appear to be helmed by actual humans, often focus on a particular niche, and link to a variety of sites rather than one single site can much more easily bypass the anti-spamming measures taken by sites such as Blogger and WordPress. While comment spam and overtly bogus blogs may be easy to spot and report to blogging platforms, these newer types of splogs are more dubious. They may contain a user profile and the content may be unique, but clearly written to benefit the target sites, whether or not they are affiliated with the blog in question.

With sploggers continuing to find ways around anti-spamming efforts, are legitimate bloggers forced to live with the consequences? Is the blogosphere destined to compete with the splogosphere forever, despite the best efforts of those committed to preserving the integrity of the Web?

Image courtesy of: http://informedvoters.files.wordpress.com

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Posted in Et cetera, Featured Blogging blogosphere blogs spam splogosphere splogs

Jul 16

The New Internet Explorer 8 Ads: Just Plain Annoying

Has any one else seen the new ads by Microsoft promoting the new update of internet explorer, IE8? The feature former Lois and Clark actor Dean Cain and involve situations that apparently require the use of extremely long acronyms. S.H.Y.N.E.S.S. is the funniest, I’ll admit, but the most controversial (and most disgusting) is the O.M.G.I.G.P. ad, which features a woman projectile-vomiting after seeing what her husband has been looking at on the computer.

Although Microsoft quickly pulled the ad after receiving overwhelming negative feedback and it is now hard to find online, I still can’t get the image of the man at fault falling to floor after slipping his wife’s vomit. Commenters on YouTube apparently were thinking that same thing, as some asked if it was a joke or if Apple was behind the entire thing, as mentioned in the above linked article.

These video ads, designed as a viral marketing campaign for Microsoft, are definitely not as successful as they were supposed to be. Overall, I think a lot of professionals in the internet marketing industry would agree with me — Microsoft should focus on providing a better web browser, stop taking ideas from Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox (like private browsing and faster navigation), and learn the line between an offbeat ad and an offensive one.

Image from http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/stone/2009/04/21/test.html via Google Images

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Posted in Et cetera, Featured IE8 internet explorer 8 microsoft

Jul 15

Twitter: The New American Superhero?

I saw a re-tweet this morning on twitter from @KhloeKardashian — it said:
“RT **AMBER ALERT***3 YR OLD GIRL WAS TAKEN BY A MAN DRIVING A NEWER SILVER TRUCK IN IDAHO FALLS,ID LIC. PLATE #72B381. KEEP it goin”

That got me to thinking…if Michael Jackson’s death can take over Twitter in a matter of a few hours, then what else can it be used for? Can Twitter’s powers be used for good, instead evil (gossip and celebrity news)?

It appears, at least according to this re-tweet, that there is definitely hope. If we could re-tweet this Amber Alert (and every one here after), think of how much the chances would increase that that little girl would be found. Think about how many more people would read the news or donated to a non-profit organization if we gave them a chance to through Twitter. We need to tweet the important issues so the Joe Average will take notice. In my opinion, the entire concept behind Twitter is that it makes people feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. They are part of a community (albeit, a digital one) that is always in the loop and on the list — and normal people want that. They want to belong to something.

To quote another superhero: Peter Parker in Spiderman, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” Twitter is now the fastest growing viral news source on the internet. We, as Twitter users, must band together to create a team of everyday superheroes that drives non-profit fundraising and awareness campaigns, tells the government when we’re angry, and becomes a community that looks out for one another.

Perhaps instead of looking at Twitter as just an internet marketing forum to boost your company and its profits, think about all the good you can do. Re-tweet that Amber Alert. Tell everyone about that controversial article about questionable government policy.

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Cartoon taken from: http://neuroanthropology.net/2009/04/14/fear-of-twitter-technophobia-part-2/

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Posted in Featured