What, Exactly, is Search Engine Spam?

By Bill Hunt,
“A special report from the Search Engine Strategies 2004 Conference, December 13-16, Chicago.

There's a subtle boundary that separates acceptable search engine optimization practices from the shadier techniques used by spammers. How can you recognize the difference between white-hat and black-hat techniques?

The first step to determine if you are playing with fire is to understand the philosophical question, "what is considered spam?" The attendees were presented with a fairly clear definition of search engine spam from Tim Mayer, Director of Product Management for Yahoo Search. Yahoo! defines spam as "pages created deliberately to trick the search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant, or poor-quality search results." This is similar to the definitions offered by Google and MSN as well.

Shari Thurow, Webmaster/Marketing Director from GrantasticDesigns.com suggested various questions that site owners should ask themselves related to content and their optimization techniques. While acknowledging that these were "obvious" questions, Thurow said "they just don't get asked enough." She strongly suggests that site owners make sure that the content benefits the target audience—site visitors—and is not just thrown on a page to skew the search engine ranking algorithms.

Sixteen flavors of search engine spam

Thurow next presented a slide that contained a comprehensive list of sixteen tactics that are considered search engine spam. These techniques include:

• Keywords unrelated to site
• Redirects
• Keyword stuffing
• Mirror/duplicate content
• Tiny Text
• Doorway pages
• Link Farms
• Cloaking
• Keyword stacking
• Gibberish
• Hidden text
• Domain Spam
• Hidden links
• Mini/micro-sites
• Page Swapping (bait &switch)
• Typo spam and cyber squatting”

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3483601

The Search Engine Report - Number 100

“In This Issue
+ SES NY Next Week; Toronto In May
+ What's Up With The SEW Awards?
+ Search Engine Report #100; SearchDay #1000
+ Top Stories
+ More From The Search Engine Watch Blog
+ About The Newsletter”

http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/3485996

Help prevent identity theft from phishing scams

What is a phishing scam?
“Phishing is a type of deception designed to steal your identity. In phishing scams, scam artists try to get you to disclose valuable personal data—like credit card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information—by convincing you to provide it under false pretenses. Phishing schemes can be carried out in person or over the phone, and are delivered online through spam e-mail or pop-up windows.

A phishing scam sent by e-mail may start with con artists who send millions of e-mail messages that appear to come from popular Web sites or sites that you trust, like your bank or credit card company. The e-mail messages, pop-up windows, and the Web sites they link to appear official enough that they deceive many people into believing that they are legitimate. Unsuspecting people too often respond to these requests for their credit card numbers, passwords, account information, or other personal data.…

To make these phishing e-mail messages look even more legitimate, the scam artists may place a link in them that appears to go to the legitimate Web site (1), but it actually takes you to a phony scam site (2) or possibly a pop-up window that looks exactly like the official site. These copycat sites are also called "spoofed" Web sites. Once you're at one of these spoofed sites, you might unwittingly send personal information to the con artists. They then often use your information to purchase goods, apply for a new credit card, or otherwise steal your identity.

To learn how you can spot a phishing e-mail scam, read How can I tell if an e-mail message is fraudulent?”

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/email/phishing.mspx

Computer Recycling

from: The NSDL Scout Report for Mathematics Engineering and Technology
Volume 4, Number 4 Topic in Depth

“BBC News: PC Ownership to 'Double by 2010'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4095737.stm
Oasis: Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment
http://www.oasis.gov.ie/public_utilities/waste_management/
waste_from_electric_and_electronic_equipment.html
PC World: How to Dispose of an Old Notebook
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,119445,00.asp
Tech Soup: Ten Tips for Donating a Computer
http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articlepage.cfm?articleid=524&topicid=1
CompuMentor: Computer Recycling & Reuse Program
http://www.compumentor.org/recycle/default.html
Vnunet: Refurbished PCs
http://www.vnunet.com/features/1155286
Refurbished Computers Buyers Guide
http://www.realise-it.org/buyersguide.asp
About.com: Bill to Curb Electronic Waste Introduced
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/technologyandresearch/a/ewastebill.htm

Given current rates of computer consumerism and technological advances, one might expect to find a lot of computers out there in the world. What happens to these old computers? This Topic in Depth explores this issue, reviews some options for recycling computers, and provides tips for anyone considering purchasing a refurbished computer. The first article from BBC News (1) reports on research which suggests that "the number of personal computers worldwide is expected to double by 2010 to 1.3 billion machines." The second article from Oasis, a project of the Irish eGovernment initiative, (2) reviews some of the issues surrounding waste from electrical and electronic equipment. This next article from PC World (3) gives some ideas for how to dispose of an old notebook computer. One option, of course, is to donate your notebook, which is discussed in this article from Tech Soup (4). Another resource for information on computer recycling and reuse is this website from CompuMentor (5). Given the current market for computers, many are considering refurbished computers. This article from Vnunet (6 ) explains what a refurbished computer is while the next website provides some tips for buying a refurbished computer (7 ). Finally, this article from About.com reports on the recently introduced National Computer Recycling Act (8). [VF] ”

From The NSDL Scout Report for Math, Engineering, & Technology, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2005. http://www.scout.wisc.edu/

http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/NSDL/MET/2005/met-050225-topicindepth.php#1

Windows XP Product-Activation

“Microsoft is modifying its product-activation policies in it's continuing its crack-down on Windows pirates.

As of next week, however, Microsoft plans to curtail the number of users relying on the Web to activate their copies of XP.

As of February 28, Microsoft will disable Internet activation for all Windows XP product keys located on Certificates of Authenticity (COA) labels that are distributed by the 20 top worldwide PC vendors. Microsoft will be relying on these PC makers to do the activation for users.

Microsoft sent a distribution alert to let its field sales force know of this change a couple of weeks ago. Tech blogger Aviran Mordo posted a copy of the alert to his Web site on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Microsoft officials acknowledged the authenticity of the alert.”

Microsoft is hoping to eliminate piracy that occurs when product keys are stolen from COAs that traditionally have been placed on PCs by OEMs.

If you type a key into (the authentication mechanism) on the Web, it will activate and not tell you anything is wrong, even if the key is stolen.

Microsoft will disable the ability to activate direct OEM product keys over the Internet. When a customer attempts to activate using a pirated key, the activation wizard will tell them to call Microsoft customer service. Call center operators will issue override keys only to customers who answer questions that prove they have legitimate copies.

Microsoft is looking at expanding the new policy to smaller PC makers and system builders.

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1769339,00.asp

Spyware Snags Blogger Users

By Matt Hicks

“Weblogs are spreading more than opinions and observations across the Internet. Some are beginning to propagate malicious software downloads that can alter browser settings, track users and serve pop-up ads.

Dozens of blogs hosted by Google Inc.'s Blogger service can install programs that are widely considered to be spyware and adware onto visitors' computers, warn users and spyware researchers. In many cases, users are discovering the offending sites as they browse among blogs through Blogger's navigation bar.

Alvin Borromeo, attorney, of Columbus, Ohio victim of spyware from a Blogger-hosted blog wrote about the problem in a post in January on the blog of his law firm, Mallory & Tsibouris Co. LPA. He posted an update with Blogger's reply to his inquiries.

He reached a blog that installed spyware on his Windows computer after clicking the "Next Blog" link in the Blogger navigation bar. Then he noticed pop-up ads appearing and that his Internet Explorer home page was changed.

In August Blogger introduced the navigation bar atop blogs that it hosts at blogspot. The bar is optional for Blogger users with their own Web hosting.

"It was very surprising," Borromeo said. "It's something that you'd expect that Google would be up on, and it came as a shock to me that I would get [spyware] through this avenue."

He added a warning to the law firm's blog about the potential for spyware downloads when navigating blogs and later moved his blog to the firm's own host in order to remove the Blogger navigation bar.

"I don't want my users going onto my blog and then clicking that next link and getting spyware downloaded onto their system," he said.

Many of the affected blogs on Blogger had included JavaScript code in their templates that pointed to a service called iWebTunes. The iWebTunes Web site provides few details about the service and no contact information, but the service appears to promise blogs the ability to play music while it also serves up downloads for spyware and adware.

A Google search on iWebTunes and Blogspot, the name of Blogger's hosting service, yields pages of blog results. When eWEEK.com visited about five of the blogs, they displayed pop-ups in Internet Explorer with misleading prompts to accept downloads.

When one download was accepted, it installed the EliteBar, which disabled other IE tool bars, including the Google Toolbar; changed the browser home page to SearchMiracle.com and began displaying pop-up ads even when IE was closed. ”

http://www.eweek.com/print_article2/0,2533,a=146399,00.asp

So you want to be a consultant...?

Steve Friedl's Unixwiz.net Tech Tips
Or: Why work 8 hours/day for someone else when you can work 16 hours/day for yourself?

http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html

Optimize Windows XP

A step-by-step guide to better performance.
By Joel Durham Jr.
“Windows operating systems are never streamlined by default. Part of the reason is that their install base is huge--many times that of any other operating system (in fact, probably every other operating system combined). No matter how well polished and optimized any Windows OS may be, Microsoft must balance performance with ease of use and across-the-board compatibility.

Therefore, Windows XP makes quite a few assumptions about how it's going to be used. Its aesthetics are designed to give the GUI a warm, friendly appearance, but effects like drop shadows and fading menus slow the OS down ever so slightly. Failsafe tools like System Restore can make recovering from crashes and incompatibilities easier, but they eat up disk space and their quiet work in the background requires processor clock cycles.

Windows XP also activates a whole batch of services that you may or may not need, depending on how you use your computer. Streamlining your system's pool of processes can expedite the OS's startup and save some clock cycles for foreground applications. Likewise, common commercial software like Quicken, Microsoft Office, and others load their own background applications that eat up system memory and monopolize the processor.

If you spend a few minutes eliminating applets and services you don't need, and are willing to sacrifice some of XP's visual goodies, you can noticeably improve game and application performance on an XP box. XP itself even helps by optimizing its file system based on your computing habits, and Microsoft provides a few hands-on applets to speed up the optimization process.”

The optimizations presented here may require registry editing or employ other system-altering modifications. administrative privileges on the machine in question are needed. Before proceeding, disable any antivirus and security programs you may be using and make backups of critical data onto removable media.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,5155,00.asp