Brian Smith of Comparison Engines has documented (with screen shots) an infestation of spam in Froogle. Searching for ipod nano, he uncovered massive affiliate sleaze marketing upon clickthroughs. The problem in this search is easy to replicate, and so severe that it obliterates usefulness. However, I did not replicate the issue in other searches, including those for high-demand products like the XBox. So it's unclear to me whether the problem lies with Froogle's submission mechanics, or whether an enterprising spammer has managed to pollute the results of one product.
Finding Spam in Froogle
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Google are really going to have to get to grips on this before more spammers start taking advantage and Froogle becomes unusable.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by telescopes
4. The problem in this search is easy to replicate
Posted at 11:08AM on Dec 29th 2005 by Business for sale
1. I actually had the exact same problem searching Froogle last week. I was looking for various digital cameras and mini-dv camcorders. I noticed affiliate spam (to eBay and other sites) on several of the products I searched.
At that time most of the spam would use a slightly different product title ("Canon(R) PowerShot SD400 5.0-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera" instead of "Canon PowerShot SD400").
Unfortunately, it now looks like the spam on that product has "improved" and now uses the popular title "Canon PowerShot SD400".
Yikes.
If Google pays as much attention to Froogle spam as they do blogspot spam this could destroy Froogle. :(
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by doug