Sgt_Kickaxe - 9:08 pm on Jun 24, 2010 (gmt 0)

What I'm shocked to be reading is that some people that have been around for ages have not created SPAM sites!

mhansen you're seeing more spam, but you're not alone. the feeling is that if you can't beat them you join them, if for no other reason but to expand your 'net property footprint to protect earnings against changes like this. The Mayday update with it's extremely rewarding changes for MASSIVE MASHUP SITES is indeed causing the number of spam sites on the net to increase.

It doesn't take much to create a script that will go and grab ALL content from ANYWHERE so when Google issued the message they would reward this (by ranking them more favorably)... it's happening, be sure of that.

What I've been calling mini-spam is creeping up everywhere too. Mini-spam is subtle and hard to detect but it's on the increase too. Things like a trustworthy news site offering links to their latest stories are seeing changes where those links now lead to a search results page with that story up top forcing a second click. The second click artificially reduces bounce rates, increases page views which pays dividends in earnings (from ad views) as well as serps (lower bounce rate site).... BUT IT'S A SPAMMY TACTIC ANYWAY... and there are many like it.

Mayday is proving to be a disaster to search quality imo. I can't tell you how sick I am of seeing mashup sites that don't even CLEARLY link to the actual site I want to see. (aka, the site they are being rewarded for stealing from).

Thumbs WAY down from this usually pro-Google webmaster. You're not alone in seeing unprecedented numbers of (reputable, big company) spam and mashup sites getting page one. Worse, they shunt the pagerank from these to their non-spammy sites and get a Google approved double boost. What's a lowly webmaster to do when his content boosts the competition more than his own site ?