spam

I've left unpublished a bunch of comments lately that seem to reflect a new kind of spam.

Since Google's algorithm is known to value inbound links, many of the spam comments that get posted on the Web actually aren't intended for users of the site where they're posted. They're Google spider bait. And when they're posted on a website that has good Google karma -- like mine -- they can help elevate the target site in Google search returns.

Until recently, the comment spam that I routinely delete without publication has been heavy-handed, obvious, and probably automated.

As newspapers work to improve their search experience and embrace Web search as well as on-site search, they're being exploited by a new round of automated blog spam that displays Internet drug listings right on the newspapers' websites.

This allows unscrupulous scammers to present their pitch under the "trusted information provider" brand of the newspaper. And it undoubtedly undermines the newspaper's brand.

Tribune Company and McClatchy sites in particular are being targeted. [Update: nytimes.com also is being exploited.]

There hasn't been much press about it, but many websites (including this one) increasingly are under attack from zombie armies, clusters of Windows PCs that have been infected by viruses that allow them to be commanded and controlled remotely by spammers.

Typically a virus installs a "back door" on an infected PC that allows it to respond to remote commands. These commands are relayed through Internet chat systems in a chain designed to disguise the identity of the spammer.

I'm on vacation and really don't have time to clean up after the spammers who assault this site every night, so I'm disallowing anonymous comments for the time being.