Search engines and 'planted' adult sites

[Brian Gaff using OE]

Could someone confirm what I believe to be true? Are more and more search engines somehow getting links to adult pay sites which appear not to be such sites till you click on the link? I cannot give you an example, as i often get in such a mess when one of these comes up that it takes me ages to get ie5 back into a stable state that speaks sense to me. These sites seam to hijack the browser and throw windows all over the place, download exre files and shove them on your start-up menu and will often not let you get away without logging off. Now for sighted users, they are maybe no more than a brief annoyance, but to me, they are a pain I can do without. I do not want to start selecting wet nurse security levels, as that can stop access to interesting stuff as well. Is there any way around this? Is there a security monitor which you can just throw annoying sites into that will always ask in a text form if the browser has been commanded to try to go there? I am sure these norty links in search engines is to get customers, but when you are looking for information about Hastings Tourism and you end up in Hot Hardcore sex, it can get to the point where flower arranging looks attractive! Brian bri...@bgserv.demon.co.uk Streetlights glint on the wettened street tyres screech to the music's beat people walk, but they never meet under the crystal moon

[Emma]

Brian - which Search engine are you using? I have found Google (which has a UK version www.google.co.uk ) if you prefer to have UK based results. I have rarely (if ever) had port sites when using google. Emma "Brian Gaff using OE" <bri...@bgserv.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:993540438.19840.0...@news.demon.co.uk... > Could someone confirm what I believe to be true? Are more and more search > engines somehow getting links to adult pay sites which appear not to be such > sites till you click on the link? > I cannot give you an example, as i often get in such a mess when one of > these comes up that it takes me ages to get ie5 back into a stable state > that speaks sense to me. These sites seam to hijack the browser and throw > windows all over the place, download exre files and shove them on your > start-up menu and will often not let you get away without logging off. > Now for sighted users, they are maybe no more than a brief annoyance, but > me, they are a pain I can do without. > I do not want to start selecting wet nurse security levels, as that can stop > access to interesting stuff as well. Is there any way around this? Is there > a security monitor which you can just throw annoying sites into that will > always ask in a text form if the browser has been commanded to try to go > there? > I am sure these norty links in search engines is to get customers, but when > you are looking for information about Hastings Tourism and you end up in > Hardcore sex, it can get to the point where flower arranging looks > attractive! > Brian > -- > bri...@bgserv.demon.co.uk > Streetlights glint on the wettened street > tyres screech to the music's beat > people walk, but they never meet > under the crystal moon

[Bill Waller]

Actually, Brian, these sites are not "planted" by the search engine. The
administrators of these sites know how to establish "key words" that the search
engines pick up on. I personally do not use OE, or any other browser on a
regular basis and therefore cannot help you with the specifics of your problem.

I would suggest, however, that you try different search engines until you find
one that does not return as many of the smut sites. I would also look at the
various options offered within the engine you use. Some support a "NOT" option
which could suppress some of the unwanted sites.

On Tue, 26 Jun 2001 07:41:21 +0100, "Brian Gaff using OE"
<bri...@bgserv.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>Could someone confirm what I believe to be true? Are more and more search
>engines somehow getting links to adult pay sites which appear not to be such
>sites till you click on the link?
>
>I cannot give you an example, as i often get in such a mess when one of
>these comes up that it takes me ages to get ie5 back into a stable state
>that speaks sense to me. These sites seam to hijack the browser and throw
>windows all over the place, download exre files and shove them on your
>start-up menu and will often not let you get away without logging off.
>
>Now for sighted users, they are maybe no more than a brief annoyance, but to
>me, they are a pain I can do without.
>
>I do not want to start selecting wet nurse security levels, as that can stop
>access to interesting stuff as well. Is there any way around this? Is there
>a security monitor which you can just throw annoying sites into that will
>always ask in a text form if the browser has been commanded to try to go
>there?
>
>I am sure these norty links in search engines is to get customers, but when
>you are looking for information about Hastings Tourism and you end up in Hot
>Hardcore sex, it can get to the point where flower arranging looks
>attractive!
>
>Brian

Bill Waller
Bethel Park, PA

wsw...@adelphia.net

[Norman L. DeForest]

I guess a late followup is better than none.

I don't think the porn sites always use keywords to generate bogus hits
in search engines. I think they do worse than that.

I am not sure but I suspect that some porn sites check the user-agent
string for any access and redirect known search engines to some other
site with a completely different but popular subject or actually fetch
pages from another site and serve them as their own. A search for Linux
information a while ago on AltaVista brought up a number of sites that
were really porn sites but AltaVista displayed their summary of the
beginning of the page as something completely different. Making a search
on the hostname in the URL brought up about ten hits, all displaying as
a Linux mailing-list archive on AltaVista's pages but redirecting to one
of five randomly-selected porn sites when I followed the links.
Refreshing a page would switch to another porn site.

By the way, I am sighted but I used lynx so I wouldn't have to look at
the pictures -- otherwise I would use the excuse, "It's a dirty job but
somebody has to do it."

I reported these pages to AltaVista but don't know if they took any
action. I never got any reply from them and the same pages showed up
weeks later. I have now forgotten where they were so can't check any
more.

Two ways that search engines can be detected are:
1. Check the user-agent string. Most search engine spiders have their own
name as the search-engine site could be sued if their spider pretends
to be a trademarked browser.
2. If a request is made from an IP address for the "robots.txt" file,
then all subsequent accesses from that address are probably from
a search engine.

--
Norman De Forest http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/Profile.html
af...@chebucto.ns.ca [=||=] (A Speech Friendly Site)
"We put up with each other's vices. She smokes, I eviscerate. I'm trying
to quit." -- the Inspector General in _Under_the_Healing_Sign_

[The Roving Reporter]

On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 06:44:46 -0300, "Norman L. DeForest"
<af...@chebucto.ns.ca> took a very strange color crayon and scribbled:

>I am not sure but I suspect that some porn sites check the user-agent
>string for any access and redirect known search engines to some other
>site with a completely different but popular subject or actually fetch
>pages from another site and serve them as their own.

Why would someone do this? It sounds more like some webmasters are
hostile to search engines and are re-directing them to porn sites. I
can imagine lots of reasons for having such an attitude.

That said, I can't say I've had this problem, but I use Google most of
the time because it gives me the results I want quickly and with the
least amount of fuss. (http://www.google.com/)

--
Therese Shellabarger tls...@concentric.net

[Brian Gaff using OE]

Well, thanks. I suspect that this kind of practice is quite unknown to many
on here. I really found it because I knew I was not that stupid in my
typing!

Brian

--
bri...@bgserv.demon.co.uk

Streetlights glint on the wettened street
tyres screech to the music's beat
people walk, but they never meet
under the crystal moon

Norman L. DeForest <af...@chebucto.ns.ca> wrote in message
news:Pine.GSO.3.95.iB1.0.101...@halifax.chebucto.ns.ca.
..

[Norman L. DeForest]

On 21 Jul 2001, The Roving Reporter wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 06:44:46 -0300, "Norman L. DeForest"
> <af...@chebucto.ns.ca> took a very strange color crayon and scribbled:
> >I am not sure but I suspect that some porn sites check the user-agent
> >string for any access and redirect known search engines to some other
> >site with a completely different but popular subject or actually fetch
> >pages from another site and serve them as their own.
>
> Why would someone do this? It sounds more like some webmasters are
> hostile to search engines and are re-directing them to porn sites. I
> can imagine lots of reasons for having such an attitude.

You have it backwards. The sites' servers are sending to the search
engine spiders other pages from other sites with popular subjects instead
of their porn so they are incorrectly indexed and displayed by the search
engines as innocent popular sites. Regular visitors get the porn sites
after making a search on such popular subjects as "Linux" when they follow
the links displayed by the search engines.

This way, you get links to the porn sites no matter what you look for as
long as it's a popular subject that the porn sites faked for the search
engines.

>
> That said, I can't say I've had this problem, but I use Google most of
> the time because it gives me the results I want quickly and with the
> least amount of fuss. (http://www.google.com/)

Try a search for "more evil than Satan" there. <insert smiley here>

--
Norman De Forest http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/Profile.html
af...@chebucto.ns.ca [=||=] (A Speech Friendly Site)

` and running a server that old is a bit like bending over in a dockyard
with "Hello Sailor" on your trousers' -- Suresh Ramasubramanian in nanae