Splogs

In "The Technologist" column of this week's Newsweek, Steven Levy discusses the annoyance of "splogs," or spam blogs. If you've never seen a spam blog, try clicking the "next blog" button at the top of this screen a few times; more than likely, you'll come across a gibberish blog with links to other sites. Splogs make sites look more important by creating more links to them, which in turn can raise advertising revenues. A few weeks ago, when I commented on several stories in Newsweek, Blogger made me use word verification before they'd publish my next post; evidently, they were suspicious I was running a splog.

Levy also notes that the fact Newsweek links to blogs discussing its articles "is a service that authors of such stories cannot resist." So, Steven Levy, if you're reading my humble blog, do leave a comment on this post, or at least take my Thanksgiving poll from yesterday.