TailRank Overtaken By Spammers; Link Based Importance Algorithm suspect

Mike @ TechCrunch wondered whether TailRank belonged to the technology deadpool.

And today the top story on TailRank is a viagra spam post. The second headline story is a porn spam post. Below that are real stories but they’re months old. This is from the site that was “designed with spam prevention in mind.”

His concerns are valid but there was much more when I visited TailRank.

Almost the whole site, not just the top post, has been overtaken by spammers (screenshot)! The first two pages of the front page are about: “Where To Buy Viagra Online” and “Dick In A Pussy”!

The spam front page stories in Tailrank today are:
- Where To Buy Viagra Online!
- Dick In A Pussy
- Xanax Withdrawal Symptoms!
- Buy Vicodin Online
- Viagra Discount Online!

It is simply amazing. There are no top news in Technology, Politics or Entertainment section and apparently it has been the same in Technology section for weeks according to TechCrunch.

As it stands today TailRank is definitely worthless as a news source if it cannot protect against such blatant spamming.

The whole algorithm of measuring newsworthiness based on links is suspect. It is the same algorithm used by other sites as memeorandum which also has been shown in the past as susceptible to hacking.

The other interesting part of the phenomenon is that the links shown in Tailrank for the spammer sites belong to reputed universities as Washington U. When you browse the site it gives a 503 (site temporarily unavailable error) and then takes you to the spammers site. Obviously someone (students or faculty) has lent their webspace for money to spammers. Having a .edu domain adds credibility to a news source to these ranking engines, a fact that has been misused by spammers.