Spam in Technology and Beyond
10 years ago when you heard the word "spam" you'd think "oh, yeah, that meat-like substance in the can!!!" but today its just a short word for "junk mail". In the article "Spam Mutates", Tom Spring takes a stand on spam and how it makes everyone's lives more complicated.
Spam in our email inboxes is old news - spam in the comments sections of our blogs is the newest form. What is difficult about fixing this problem is that there is no "junk mail" filtering to prevent it, per se. There is even a particular kind of spam blog out there - it's called a "Splog". The simplest definition of a Splog is a blog that is created purely for marketing reasons.
In light of that revalation - what, if fact, makes our attempts at commercial blogs different than Splogs? Perhaps it's the fact that at least to some extent we will provide information about the products we are trying to market instead of just website links. Also, our current attempts at commercial blogs are based on using Google Adsense ads, while the Splogs simply use the blog format to post links to websites that it turn will lead to money making. Go ahead, press "next blog" and my guess is that in the next 5-10 blogs you'll come across one of these Splogs.
So how do we go about cleaning up the spam in our life? Most email servers these days have "junk mail" filters so that only important emails will make it to your inbox. The problem with that is that sometimes REAL emails get stuck in the spam box. Sadly, I end up checking my junk mail as much as my inbox in case someone who isn't already on my "safe list" has emailed me. How about preventing comment spam.......well, Google's blog does have the option of typing in a verification code before submitting comments. This can prevent computers from just posting comments in the spam section, but it doesn't prevent individuals from typing in the code and putting the spam on your website themselves. As far as Splogs go, Google says that we can flag them for objectionable content and they will make every attempt to remove the content or delete the accounts. Way to go Google!
Spam in our email inboxes is old news - spam in the comments sections of our blogs is the newest form. What is difficult about fixing this problem is that there is no "junk mail" filtering to prevent it, per se. There is even a particular kind of spam blog out there - it's called a "Splog". The simplest definition of a Splog is a blog that is created purely for marketing reasons.
In light of that revalation - what, if fact, makes our attempts at commercial blogs different than Splogs? Perhaps it's the fact that at least to some extent we will provide information about the products we are trying to market instead of just website links. Also, our current attempts at commercial blogs are based on using Google Adsense ads, while the Splogs simply use the blog format to post links to websites that it turn will lead to money making. Go ahead, press "next blog" and my guess is that in the next 5-10 blogs you'll come across one of these Splogs.
So how do we go about cleaning up the spam in our life? Most email servers these days have "junk mail" filters so that only important emails will make it to your inbox. The problem with that is that sometimes REAL emails get stuck in the spam box. Sadly, I end up checking my junk mail as much as my inbox in case someone who isn't already on my "safe list" has emailed me. How about preventing comment spam.......well, Google's blog does have the option of typing in a verification code before submitting comments. This can prevent computers from just posting comments in the spam section, but it doesn't prevent individuals from typing in the code and putting the spam on your website themselves. As far as Splogs go, Google says that we can flag them for objectionable content and they will make every attempt to remove the content or delete the accounts. Way to go Google!
posted by Elaine @ 10:32 AM
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