Google aims to outsmart search tricksters
Published: January 18, 2005, 4:08 PM PST
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/Google+aims+to+o...40.html?tag=nl
update Google will introduce new technology controls to thwart people using blogs to manipulate rankings in its search results.
Otherwise known as "link" or "comment spam," the ruse is as old as Web marketing. Such Web site promoters use the comment form on forums, blogs or any Web page to place or gain a link pointing back to their own Web site. And because Google and other search engines tabulate search results in part by a Web page's link popularity with other sites, the trick can boost a site's ranking--and more importantly, traffic. It can also produce irrelevant search results.