Microsoft Engineers Launch Tool to Combat Spam in Search Engines
Yi-Min Wang, Director of the System Management and Cyber Security Research Group at Microsoft Research, explains: “Instead of commenting directly on blogs or forums, spammers will send URLs to link to spam websites. Because their frequency of appearance is too high on legitimate pages, search engines like Google, Yahoo, or MSN will index these URLs and display them in search results.”
The tool designed by Microsoft will utilize search mechanisms on forums that are often targeted by spam, identifying spam URLs and removing them before they can be indexed by search engines. “Strider Search Defender can also distinguish between legitimate URLs and spam addresses,” Wang noted.
In cases where spammers use “doorway domains” (domains used to rank keywords in search engines, acting as gateways through the main domain) to create spam pages, the tool will identify the exploited domain and report it to the administrator. This doorway domain is a legitimate URL but can be exploited by spammers to create spam pages that look like real websites, deceiving both users and search engines.
Wang stated that free web hosting sites like MySpace or Google BlogSpot can utilize Microsoft’s method to identify if spammers are using their platforms as doorway domains. Users are also advised to close pop-up pages they have never visited or used.
Thuy Huong
