hyku | blog - David Sifry & Technorati on Spam Blogs and Fake Blogs - by business blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett

In the latest of his 'State of the Blogosphere' posts, David Sifry of Technorati addresses Spam Blogs and Fake Blogs. David talks about why he differentiates spam blogs from fake blogs:

I should note that some fake blogs may very well contain interesting and relevant content, which opens a debate onto how useful or valuable they are. This is why I don't include fake blogs in with Spam blogs (as defined above) because it is debatable that these systems are actually providing readers some value.

I find the fake blogs to be more aggravating since they often get you to click-thru from a search result, only to find you've wasted your time. His highlights from the article:

- Along with the explosive growth in the blogosphere, there has also been a growth in spam blogs and fake blogs
- These blogs are almost always created by automated programs, not by people

- They are usually created with an economic incentive - to get better search engine rankings, or to create affiliate or advertising revenue

- Technorati has been working closely with major toolmakers, search engines, and hosting providers to quickly identify and stamp out spam and fake blogs

- The key to reducing blog spam is to eliminate economic incentives, and we are working with major advertising and affiliate programs to create roadblocks for spammers and creators of fake blogs

- Industry players including Amazon, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Drupal, Google, MSN, Six Apart, Technorati, Tucows, and Wordpress and others are getting together in the second half of September for the second Web 2.0 Spam Squashing Summit.