

More Google Search Issues - google-stuff

Click on the 1st result of this query
http://www.google.com/search?q=amortization+modification<p>It goes to this page:
http://www.startingtowhoop.com/vidplayer/source/fla/amortizationloanmodification.html<p>I presume they are doing this to generate affiliate education leads ($20-40/lead).<p>This is similar to what Chris Dixon had shown in his analysis:
http://cdixon.org/2009/12/19/anatomy-of-a-bad-search-result/<p>where they translate between languages and post garbage.
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Bing is slightly better with the same query:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=amortization+modification<p>The 1st result goes to this page:
http://loanmodification.name/?tag=amortization<p>=====
I posted using a throwaway account &#38; I am not affiliated with Google/MS or not into SEO. I just don't want Matt Cutts analyzing all my submissions /comments at HN :) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2063693
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Matt_Cutts
I'm familiar with this sort of spam, but it's unlike any of the other cases
mentioned recently. I believe the site itself is legitimate, but it's been
hacked.

Our system first detected and blocked hacked content on this site on
8/30/2010, but at that point it was only a subpart of the site that was
hacked. It appears that not only has the site owner not gotten the issue under
control, but now the main root page has been hacked. Luckily our automated
malware checks are now flagging the site; visiting the Chrome should show a
big red page and a message like "www.startingtowhoop.com contains content from
onlineisdudescars.com, a site known to distribute malware." So the ball is
rolling to alert visitors to this site and the owner of this site.

I wouldn't expect this site to last too much longer in the results (probably
gone in a few hours or tomorrow). You're getting a glimpse of some of the
stuff we have to deal with to return good search results, including site
owners who don't deal with hacked sites for months at a time and hackers who
do massive attacks across hundreds or thousands of domains with a malware
chaser. :(

P.S. You might want to edit the url in your submission so that no one else
clicks on that links and gets malware. IE doesn't use our Safe Browsing API,
so IE users might get infected.

