____/ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on Wednesday 14 November 2007 22:47 : \____
> <Quote>
> ...this post presents evidence indicating that Microsoft is spamming
> websites. A big claim, I know, but I can't find a better explanation.
> You'll have to decide.
>
> The summary: IP addresses belonging to Microsoft are requesting pages
> from eKstreme.com and blogSci.com (my science blog) with HTTP referer
> headers suggesting that the hits were from live.com searches. These
> referer headers are spoofed as the keywords from these supposed
> searches are sometimes in no way related to the requested page.
> Additionally, for most of the other supposed searches, the requested
> pages do not rank in the top 10 (first page of results) in a way to
> send this traffic.
> </Quote>
>
>
http://ekstreme.com/thingsofsorts/blogging/yell-if-microsofts-livecom-spammed-you-too/
[me yelling /]
They have been referrer-spamming several of my sites for months. It must have
started around the time when they introduced those 'games' (as in gaming the
system and breaking stats methods).
This one I received by E-mail:
,----[ Quote ]
| [...]
|
| Live.com has been pinging people's sites with what appears to be referrer
| spam. There is a thread about it here:
| http://www.webmasterworld.com/msn_microsoft_search/3424476.htm
|
| I posted a summary here -- I suspect that it's just old fashioned referrer
| spam: http://pocketseo.com/analytics/146
|
| Some other takes on it:
|
|
http://andrewu.co.uk/webtech/comment/?odd_referrer_spamlike_behaviour_from_microsoft
|
|
http://www.bitworm.com/search/2007/is-microsoft-live-search-stuffing-our-log-files/
|
| I thought you might be interested. I attached a sample excerpt from one of
| my sites' logs in case you haven't seen it before. [...]
`----
See:
How Microsoft Clubs to Search Gains
,----[ Quote ]
| We checked with Hitwise, and they explained that June gains include “searches
| automatically generated from a promotion on club.live.com,” up to June 9,
| 2007. After that they stopped counting the data.
`----
http://gigaom.com/2007/07/27/how-microsoft-clubs-to-search-gains/
Tracking Internet Use Remains Difficult
,----[ Quote ]
| For example, this month Nielsen said search-engine queries for No. 3-ranked
| Microsoft Corp. jumped about 80 percent in June, a curious development for a
| search engine that had been continuously losing market share.
|
| Microsoft said the gains were the result of a word game promotion, in which
| players had to form words out of a jumble of letters. As part of the game,
| Microsoft's search engine automatically hunted for Web pages that contained
| the word being guessed at.
|
| The promotion raises the question of whether these clicks were the result of
| using automated means, and therefore shouldn't be counted.
|
| Nielsen product manager Scott Ross said the company sees no need to change
| the June search-engine rankings. Yet, he conceded that critics -- including
| Yahoo, operator of the world's second most popular search engine -- may also
| have a point about Microsoft using questionable means to spark the surge in
| popularity.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070725/tracking_internet_usage.html?.v=1
Microsoft’s Club Live fiasco
,----[ Quote ]
| People were using the macro on more than 3 games at a time, on more than 2
| accounts at a time, why Microsoft didn’t pick up on the fact that in the
| first few days some people had accumulated enough for 3 Zunes each is beyond
| us. Some were lucky, others, not so much.
|
| [...]
|
| So far no one has been banned from using their accounts, which they needed to
| sign up, probably because they did not break any laws, or probably because
| Microsoft didn’t want that hassle and liked their new found traffic.
`----
http://www.blogthe.net/2007/07/16/microsofts-club-live-fiasco/
Bots Helped To Boost Microsoft Live Search Gains
,----[ Quote ]
| In a blog post, Compete analyst Steve Willis attributed Microsoft's
| search gains to prizes awarded to users participating in Live Search
| Club, which features games that post queries to Microsoft's search
| engine.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft is essentially being DDoSed by thousands of people hundreds
| of times per minute, but they are mistaking this rise in traffic for
| people actually using Live Search."
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001092
Despite this, Live.com continue to lose market share:
Live Search's High Dive
,----[ Quote
| Microsoft's August and September declines clearly show that gimmicks aren't
| enough to gain and maintain relevant search market share.
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/web_services_browser/live_searchs_high_dive.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
Here are figures from a survey. They will be out of date in the future(dynamic
content in the URL), but Google has 85% market share in search.
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
Microsoft is merely nonexistent... like in the world's biggest PCs, where
Microsoft has a minuscule market share of 1%. Worry not however, because
Microsoft has already bought the media, so it'll find some propaganda-like
methods to hide these true facts.
--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | Play Othello: http://othellomaster.com
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Mem: 515500k total, 444508k used, 70992k free, 3576k buffers
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms
|
|
