Microsoft Caught Spamming Google

[bhartzer]

It appears that someone at Microsoft has created some of what I call the "old classic doorway pages" in an attempt to spam Google. When you perform a search at Google for search terms such as "Broadcast automation india", "Hosting management australia", and "Education software asia", you'll find that pages on Microsoft.com appear at the top of Google's search results. When you go to one of those pages, it redirects you to another web page.

Doorway Page Spam
A spammy doorway page is a web page that's optimized specifically for the search engines. Normally, the formatting is not very appealing and includes non-sense text, optimized in such a way that it satisfies the search engines. When a human visits the page, they're redirected to another web page. This is some of the worst kind of spam that appears in the search engines from time to time, and will get your entire website banned in Google if you're caught with any of this search engine spam on your website. These types of doorway pages have been around for several years now. Sometimes they slip through the cracks and search engine algorithms like Google's algorithm doesn't notice it right away.

Microsoft's Doorway Page Spam
In this particular case, someone at Microsoft has created these spammy doorway pages so that they rank well in Google. And as this is being written, the pages in question rank at the top of the search results for the particular terms that they're targeting. When a human visits the page, the page loads a javascript file that redirects the visitor to another web page. Specifically, this search at Google should bring up the pages in question. When a search engine robot visits the page, the robot doesn't execute the javascript code which includes the redirect--it just sees the optimized nonsense text, which results in a top search engine ranking.

This is a sample of one of the spammy doorway pages I'm talking about. If you turn off javascript in your web browser while visiting the page, you should be able to see the optimized page.

Expecting More from Microsoft
As Microsoft works on a new search engine of their own, should we hold Microsoft themselves to a higher standard? Should we expect Microsoft to play by the rules and not create web pages on their own website that spam the search engines?

[Phiber]

Originally Posted by bhartzer

Expecting More from Microsoft
As Microsoft works on a new search engine of their own, should we hold Microsoft themselves to a higher standard? Should we expect Microsoft to play by the rules and not create web pages on their own website that spam the search engines?

Of course not. Like you wrote, Microsoft is working on it's new search engine, IMHO whoose launch will be delayed.

Microsoft won't play by the rules. If you throw off the monopoly accusations, Microsoft still spends a lot of time in court.

And after all, if You were in Microsoft's shoes and you would be working on your new search engine, would you play by-the-book? -- armed with hundreds of lawyers.

I sure wouldn't.

[satya-tlb]

For all us know MS may not even know about this spam, if some external SEO agency is working on their site. If they did, we now know how to get top ranks in new MS search engine :)

[glengara]

Seems to be a http://www.tften.com operation, Microsoft (possibly Singapore?) is one of their clients...

[PhilC]

Originally Posted by Phiber

Of course not. Like you wrote, Microsoft is working on it's new search engine, IMHO whoose launch will be delayed.

Microsoft won't play by the rules....

There are no "rules", gentlemen.

[janeth]

DO you think Google will ban them ? (-:

[PhilC]

You could email Google and find out, Janeth :)

I looked at one of the doorway pages and it's amazing that Microsoft have allowed it to happen - even in a regional Microsoft. My bet is that even the regional MS doesn't know about it - of course I usually loose bets!

[PhilC]

Originally Posted by glengara

Seems to be a http://www.tften.com operation, Microsoft (possibly Singapore?) is one of their clients...

If it is that company, they are dead against spam. Their "anti-spam policies" are at http://www.tften.com/article.php3?id_article=33

I wonder what methods they would use if they *did* spam :)

[ReviewGolf.com]

One might think this is unethical, but I would not really classify this as SPAM. After all Microsoft does offer relevant content on their pages.

[PhilC]

It's definitely spam, but there's nothing unethical about spam. I fully support spam if it's necessary, and I'm not against MS doing it. Have you seen one of the pages?

[bhartzer]

According to Google it's spam, and that's good enough for me. It's a redirect, a doorway page, and has text that's virtually hidden to the average human visitor.

Making pages like this will get your site banned in Google. So why should Microsoft.com be an exception?

[flood6]

Originally Posted by bhartzer

Making pages like this will get your site banned in Google. So why should Microsoft.com be an exception?

Because a search engine that doesn't have Microsoft.com in their index is a second-rate search engine. They're just too big.

[allanp73]

I did a search for "Broadcast automation India" and noticed not only MSN's spam but that someone commented about this on another forum in June. That means that Google is really slow to react to this type of Spam. May be if your name is Bill you get a free license to spam. ;) I thinking of changing my name.

[beanstalk]

Originally Posted by bhartzer

Making pages like this will get your site banned in Google. So why should Microsoft.com be an exception?

Originally Posted by flood6

Because a search engine that doesn't have Microsoft.com in their index is a second-rate search engine. They're just too big.

It sucks but it's true. A search engine without Microsoft in it is just not complete. A call to MS from Google with a bit of a warning might help though.

"Hello Bill, this is Serg. Listen ... yes we know you can spam and there's not too much we can do about it but with the launch on your new search engine ... well ... let's just say we know a thing or two about spam tactics too shall we?" ;)

That or Google could simply study how they're doing it and filter out those pages.

[mediahound]

Here we have this:



function balise(s, ids, idt)
{
var asp = 'http://msasia.domain255.com/img.asp?l=|' + navigator.userLanguage + '|&r=|' + document.referrer + '|&s=|' + ids + '|&t=|' + idt + '|&g=' + s;
location.replace(asp);
}


Maybe this guy has something to do with it, or at least knows more insight:

Domain Name: DOMAIN255.COM
Registrar: KEY-SYSTEMS GMBH
Whois Server: whois.rrpproxy.net
Referral URL: http://www.key-systems.net
Name Server: TRADEMARK.IPTWINS.NET
Name Server: DOMAINAME.IPTWINS.NET
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 13-sep-2004
Creation Date: 04-sep-2003
Expiration Date: 04-sep-2006


>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 06:44:25 EDT <<<

------------------------------
Extended Data
------------------------------

DOMAIN: DOMAIN255.COM

RSP: iptwins
URL: http://www.iptwins.com

created-date: 2003-09-04
updated-date: 2004-09-13
registration-expiration-date: 2006-09-04

owner-contact: P-NDV25
owner-organization: TFTEN SA
owner-fname: Nicolas
owner-lname: van Beek
owner-street: 5, rue Emile Bian
owner-city: Luxembourg
owner-zip: 01235
owner-country: LU
owner-phone: +352.26480737
owner-email: ivan.sly@iptwins.com

admin-contact: P-NDV25
admin-organization: TFTEN SA
admin-fname: Nicolas
admin-lname: van Beek
admin-street: 5, rue Emile Bian
admin-city: Luxembourg
admin-zip: 01235
admin-country: LU
admin-phone: +352.26480737
admin-email: ivan.sly@iptwins.com

tech-contact: P-ILS33
tech-organization: IP TWINS SAS
tech-fname: Ivan
tech-lname: Sly
tech-street: 58 bis, rue de la chaussee d antin
tech-city: Paris
tech-zip: 75009
tech-country: FR
tech-phone: +33 142789312
tech-fax: +33 142789315
tech-email: ivan.sly@iptwins.com

billing-contact: P-ILS33
billing-organization: IP TWINS SAS
billing-fname: Ivan
billing-lname: Sly
billing-street: 58 bis, rue de la chaussee d antin
billing-city: Paris
billing-zip: 75009
billing-country: FR
billing-phone: +33 142789312
billing-fax: +33 142789315
billing-email: ivan.sly@iptwins.com

[flood6]

Originally Posted by beanstalk

That or Google could simply study how they're doing it and filter out those pages.

Yeah, I'm sure that if google is aware of this, the decision on what to do is being made by someone fairly important at G.

If I were making the decision and there are fewer than 100 MS pages doing this, I would just axe those pages (and the pages they redirect to).

[jawn_tech]

Wow, this seems to put Google in quite a pickle. The things we're not allowed to do by Google's criteria (nor should we be), MSN is doing.

On one hand, if they let their algo do its thing and ban MSN, they've lost MSN from their index for a given length of time. Ouch.

On the other hand, do they go against their claim that they don't cherry pick sites by hand to either make exceptions or to ban from SERPs, then many might see that as setting a precedence.

Either way, a precedence is going to be set by this... Interesting to see how this unfolds.

[CraigAllen]

Just an off thought here, but not entirely off-topic. Lets say someone creates these doorway pages, but does not actually submit them to, say, Google, just has them posted on their server. Would they still be considered spamming? I mean, they did not actually go out of their way to get Google to spider them (but nor did they exclude googlebot in a robots.txt), so if Google spiders find them, how could Google say they were spamming Google? This sort of gets back at the postings I've read where someone has suggested getting their competitors banned by building doorway pages that do a javascript redirect to competitors' sites and then submitting them.

[arpecop]

B A N! for Microsoft

[ronniethedodger]

Originally Posted by flood6

Yeah, I'm sure that if google is aware of this, the decision on what to do is being made by someone fairly important at G.

If I were making the decision and there are fewer than 100 MS pages doing this, I would just axe those pages (and the pages they redirect to).

I would imagine that they would filter out the doorway pages and let the other pages that were redirected to stand on their own. Just another method of filtering to add to the list.

There are close to 600 pages in this one "asian portal" section. Most of the terms are hitting number one (I just did some random checks, not too extensive).

Another interesting thing is that these pages must have a "no cache" directive, because the results are not showing the link for it. The same holds true over at Yahoo Search as well.

Speaking of Yahoo! Where do they stand on this? Apparently MicroSoft is not fairing too well in the results for those doorway pages. Again I did some precursory checks, and they were not even showing up in the top 100 for those terms.

Of course, Yahoo is not carrying nearly as many of these pages as Google is. What else is new. But they are not banning them outright either, Yahoo is showing a mere 70+ pages in total. This is about par for the course IMO.

It is good to see that Yahoo is not playing favorites in the "where are my pages" game. Perhaps they should sign up for SiteMatch too! ;-)

[chris_g]

Another interesting thing is that these pages must have a "no cache" directive, because the results are not showing the link for it. The same holds true over at Yahoo Search as well.

You are right ronniethedodger, they are using a no cache tag. In fact two no cache tags, these guys have planned this out. This is from their page when you view source on one of the doorway pages.

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="pragma" CONTENT="no-cache"><meta HTTP-EQUIV="cache-control" content="no-cache">

Just because they are some division of Microsoft its not right that they are given the blind eye. I don't agree with banning sites but G should filter these doorway pages from their results just like they would if it was anyone else.