Archive 23. November 2003

i d l y . o r g :: Porn Sites Hiding Behind Blogs

This fits well with the recent discussion about blog spam: apparently there are currently a number of pseudo-blogs that have been set up solely for the purpose of building Google juice and then later being converted into porn sites once many Google results point there. I'm not sure if that's really the clever strategy — Google throws out the corresponding results at the latest after the next Google Dance (the reorganization of Google indices based on newer Google robot results). And a Google Dance happens often enough that you really can't build lasting results that way.

What would be a fairly insidious technique, however, is if the Googlebot continued to be presented with the pseudo-blogs (it's recognizable to the web server by its user agent specification) while only regular user browsers saw the porn sites. That way Google would continue to diligently index a pseudo-blog and direct users to the home page of this pseudo-blog, where they'd then see the smut.

Here's the original article.

Metro Group continues in warning letter fever

Wow. Germany's biggest food price gouger is now even sending cease-and-desist letters to U-Bahn fans. We should compile a hit list of the most audacious cease-and-desist letters. This one would rank right at the top, alongside Mobilix-Obelix.

At heise online news you'll find the original article.

"Not amused": Bush visit leaves traces

Bomb Iraq? Cool, we're in. Detain people against applicable international law? No problem, we'll look the other way. Lie and cheat to justify a war? No big deal, we do that too.

But heaven forbid the lawn gets damaged. And those poor traumatized flamingos ...

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Rondayview: Da Funk and Da Noise

Interesting set of Photoshop actions under MIT license (so free) for reducing noise in digital images. The whole thing makes a good impression and is nice and easy to use.

Here's the original article.