pocketseo - 6:10 pm on Oct 20, 2007 (gmt 0)

I may be cynical by nature, but the exact same theory has passed my mind too.

* Microsoft is sending keywords that match the subject matter of the Web sites
* They also insert some porn-related keywords
* This exactly matches referrer-spam behavior
* "MSNdude" ambiguously calls this a "quality check" and will not directly reply to concerns about this problem
* What kind of "quality check" would require sending of referrer strings to the webmasters' logs? Why does a webmaster need to see these referrers? Is MSN going to interview us about it when they are done?

Come on... there are a lot of experienced webmasters here. Can anyone think of any possible reasons why a "quality check" would require sending referrer strings that match the content of the site, or referrers that include porn words?

This is referrer spam.