This is a personal blog so I am going to let off some steam…I try not to talk about work here…but this one I can’t let go…
I lead our team into researching this complete and utter mess. and pretty close to solving it too.
The situation…

1) Party unknown figures out how to optimize Blogspot pages to achieve high rankings in MSN portal Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) for popular terms known as keywords, in particular keywords around World Cup coverage.

2) This person uses Google’s Blogspot hosting. It has been noted before that Blogspot hosting allows users to insert JavaScript into the head of the HTML page, creating a vulnerable environment.

3) Party unknown implements a complex server-side, auto-rotation system on a domain hosted elsewhere.

4) Party unknown accomplishes “cloaking” the Blogspot URLs, hiding the auto-rotation system. The pages rank high in many MSN search results for targeted keywords.

5) Users conducting queries on MSN or users who arrive on the tainted blogspot URLs are redirected to various pages. In this particular example some sites display explicit pornographic content in addition to offering software downloads with a documented history of security risk.

What freaked me out was this snap with JS disabled. A kid could game that algo. A kid probably did. There you go…see the snapshot- that is all you need to do. BlogSpit 101
I did some serious question asking at RN…my PERSONAL response…on my own time.
- How do you guard against this as an advertiser or affiliate buying traffic?

You stay out of slum areas, adware, and audit like crazy. Click fraud is rampant. Anyone who denies that is smoking crack.

- What should Microsoft do given the pollution spillover?

If someone poisoned my ecosystem- I would ban their dangerous property. MSFT tolerates it? Why…Strider noted the poison a month ago. Hmmmm

- Who would the average searcher blame if they encountered this situation?

Probably MSFT for taking them to a porn spot.

- What should Google do given the problem at Blogspot?

Turn off the damn JavaScript in the head of the doc. They do it for the body.

- What would be the long-term outcome if Google disabled JavaScript in the head of Blogspot pages?

Good one…that cascade event I keep harping about. You don’t want any issues around your obvious technological and revenue concentration risk.

- How should other search engines handle the popular Blogspot pages as they currently stand?

In the current state- ban them until they are strapped down. Keep your users safe. Blogspot is becoming a beachhead for JS enabled hellspawn. It is a sad recourse but the ethical one.

- How will search engines handle and react to obfuscated or any JavaScript in the future?

I am not an SEO specialist…but I imagine they will start peering into JS, how they crack the obfuscation on the fly I don’t know…maybe if they encounter it they don’t index it?

- What should law enforcement do given the law § 2252B. Misleading Domain Names on the Internet?

First find the asshats behined this scheme- I think it is Umax. I have to wonder if Google is responsible too- they are enabling this. Read the law. ???

- How does this impact the ICANN debate on the privacy of domain ownership and misleading domain information

I don’t think it will. RealTechNews and SearchEngineWatch have picked it up- I hope it goes out from there. There is no excuse for this.

Little kids looking for World Cup results should not be exposed to hard core material. Period on the end. It could be prevented.

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