Blogs are transforming the web. First and foremost, the easy access to web publishing that blogging gives is contributing to the diversity of the web and making it a more interesting place.

But because the process of setting up a blog is so quick and easy that even machines can do it, fake blogs are getting to be a real problem. These blogs get content from other blogs and contain no original content. Their sole purpose is to generate revenue through advertising.

Fake blogs of little or no interest are frustrating searchers and contaminating search engine results and in this way they can be said to be the new spam. Technorati says up to 8% of the 70,000 blogs created every day are fake and Feedster blocks thousands a day.

The problem with Google
Interestingly enough, Google’s technology is among the main reasons for this growing problem.

The web site Splogspot.com publishes a weekly list of fake blogs. Their latest list of 41,000 contains 34,000 that originate from Google’s free Blogspot hosting service. There are even simple scripts that build Blogspot blogs automaticly.

A war with no winners

Blogspot is taking action to stop the scripts, such as visual word verification and various filters. They still do not require e-mail verification, though.

Google has also recently provided a “flag as objectionable” feature. This allows users to report fake blogs to the company’s anti-spam team.

The reason d’etre of these fake blogs is to generate revenue by directing visitors to e-commerce sites or by using Google’s AdSense service. Fraud and spamming dilutes the confidence that serious advertisers place in AdSense and this can be expensive for Google in the long run.

This, and the polluted search results, is the reason why Google is now taking action to stop fake blogs. But like the war against search engine spamming in general, this is, unfortunately, a conflict in which no one wins the war. The search engines can hope to win some battles but the spammers will adjust and come back with renewed strength and new strategies.

Read more in Michael Pollit’s excellent article Cashing in on fake blogs in The Guardian.