Search Keyword Spamming Has Begun!

Let the keywords fly! I already started to see people who are spamming the new search functons with objects filled with keywords, and yet very little relevance.

*sigh*

Objects?

The new search is simply a web page indexer: for every parcel the sim (or some thing) generates a web page with all the objects for sale on that parcel listed on the page and that page is then indexed. All words in the name field of any rezzed prim that's for sale now act as keywords for your parcel.

The effect is the same as adding a bunch of random words to a regular web site and letting Google pick it up.

Thanks. But what shows up in search? Just whatever message I put in the object name?

What you put in the name and description of the object. Some people have already started flooding their land with a number of objects, all with the same keywords repeating themselves in them. And after visiting a few of these places, I noticed quite quickly that the objects had no use but to get indexed and boost the rankings.

did you really expect anything less?
it is SL after all, if they do not game the traffic they will game the search, or whatever they can

who says SL is not a game??

No one in this thread up until this point that I can see. But I will say it now. SL is not a game. It's a business platform.

Okay, dumb question maybe, but I'm desperately trying to understand how this works.
If a store for instance, sells 100 dresses and labels every dress as a dress would that come up higher than someone selling 50 dresses and doing the same thing? Just trying to make sense of it really.

told u this would happen

let the object spam commence and kill search with unlimited bogus sales objects, atleast with the old search there was a land description limit and subdividing would kill traffic...

I'm curious about this too. Why wouldn't I just rez 50 or 100 or 1000 more of whatever object I'm selling up to my prim limit. Stick it in a skybox if necessary. It's actually a helluva lot easier than bots.

So is this the case?

Right. I've got 4000 spare prims on my rental sim. So I can just fill a skybox full of 4000 cubes touting my rentals? Sure beats paying LL for an ineffective classified.

If that's the case, it's the most flawed, slapnuts business platform in the entire world. All data is owned by the company that provides the platform, theft of IP is ridiculously easy, and the entire platform struggles mightily to maintain its stability in the face of even fractional traffic as compared to the web.

SL isn't a business platform. It can't figure out what the hell it is. And I doubt it ever will.

What are you doing here? You got some rezzing to do!

it was rhetorical because I see so many ppl saying SL is not a game

SL is whatever each person chooses to make it for themselves

for me it is a game at times and not at others

Well it's not a game either. Maybe it's just a bad dream that I will wake up soon from, hopefully before my next tier date.

I have gotten the lion's share of my tenants through the classifieds. Custom work was more word of mouth. I occasionally get some prefab sales, and most of those are probably through classifieds. I don't know about classifieds being terribly ineffective... they have been the main source of my livelihood for the last year.

How does this produce any benefit to anyone in the search engine?

Dunno. This is all new to me. Not like I'm actually going to do it...

In the mind of a search engine, someone searching for Widgets will be more interested in finding a place that sells 4000 widgets than a place that sells 5. Bogus prims for sale that are named and described as Widget Widgets will artificially boost the relevance in search.

If it works the way we think it might it wouldn't benefit anyone using the search engine, but it sure would benefit Ray. He'd get better search results and therefore more likely to fill his empty rentals.

That's why this looks like a pretty lousy system. On the other hand, those with poorer systems who couldn't have lots of multiple logged in bots will now be able to compete more effectively. Anyone can rez prims.

As far as relevance goes, though, it would be a total bust to keep things the way they are. Developers have to realize what is going on and find a way to ignore prims that are intended to trick the system. Since the new search is borrowing some of its spirit from Google search, let's hope it also borrows its intention to fine tune against tricking.

Otherwise, those of us who just want to stay relevant will have to fight with those who can rezz thousands of useless prims on their land.

More fun from the people bringing us the new search engine:

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/12/virus-experts-w.html

Unfortunately, any search method can and will be gamed and optimized by both legitimate business owners trying to get noticed, and scammers looking to rip people off. At least with the old method of traffic/paid ads we knew more about what we were getting.

That is why, despite my bitching, I'm optimistic overall. It is a new system and still in the works. With Google at the helm I trust things will end well as long as LL gives Google the freedom to operate it correctly.

But it's not Google at the helm - it's LL, just licensing Google's technology. LL is the one setting the parameters for indexing. LL is the one who thinks it works, and hasn't changed it a lick since the first iteration of RC1.

QFT, and so maybe fewer people will miss this. It's disturbing to me how many people have been led to believe that the Big G is somehow running the whole SL search system now.

All Google did was sell LL a fancy specialized computer with fancy specialized software on it. It's up to LL to make it work.