Google Takes Action Against Comment Spammers

Googleguy made a comment recently at Webmaster World about a change for the better in their search engine. According to Googleguy, “Google has started deploying better technology that negates the effect of blog comment spamming. The changes haven’t fully rolled out yet, but … blog comments aren’t doing your site any benefit anymore.” That’s a bold move, and one I’m pleased with. I’ve been battling comment spam even here at my tiny blog! I imagine what a problem it is for people with popular blogs. Bless Google and their efforts against spammers.

I am curious to know how they implemented this, and what collateral damage will have been done. It’s not obvious to me how they could make a change that effectively targets just comment spam without lumping a lot of legit links in with it. Most blogs are similar in format, but normal links on a blog do appear right in there with comment spam. Anyway, in this case the evil is so heinous that some collateral damage is acceptable.