The ICUC Glossary: Splog

Spam + Blog = Splog

Here’s another mash-up word, or a portmanteau (that’s the formal literary term for a “mash up”) that I so love to define.

These are just crap blogs either built by spam bots or generated out of meaningless garble to try and attract visits for the purpose of selling ads, gaining link exposure to affiliated entities, trying to increase linkability or search engine ranking – or some other bogus money-making reason or information modulating reason that doesn’t line up with the criteria of a legit blog.

A legit blog being one that actually writes for the sake of engaging with readers, providing useful information and so forth.  Splogs, on the other hand, usually contain garbage posts with false or made up information – sometimes with totally fake articles, sometimes they’re just smattered with ads, links, and other promotional links to lure you in.

What’s most frustrating about a splog is that usually there’s some reason you’ve been lured there – when searching you see something in the search results that seems to provide the real information you’re seeking, or you’ve clicked on a link from another legit site expecting to go to a real blog.  When you land on a splog it’s annoying and a bummer, and sometimes a barrage of pop-ups will also accompany your landing on the page.

The worst kind of splog is a phishing site – designed to look like a legitimate blog or sales site that ends up tricking visitors into submitting personal information.  You may try to buy something or supply other data about yourself (address, banking info, password, email, etc) that can then be used to steal from you, spam you with more ads, or even worse – attack you with malware, spyware, keystroke software that’s able to track what you type in.

This is all rather alarmist though – so don’t get too panicked just reading this.  Most splogs are just crazy fake blogs trying to generate money as you click on the different links and ads posted.  It’s mostly a nuisance and a hassle.  (Isn’t it always a nuisance when spam strikes again?!?!).

To try and avoid splogs, be wary of the web address or where you’ve found the link.  And once you’ve realized you’ve landed on a splog – leave asap, and report the site to whatever browser you’re using, to any protective software you’ve installed on your computer (like an anti-virus program or what have you), or the host blog if it happens to be on a real hosting platform like Blogger or WordPress, etc.

…

Image source: Small Time