Google Poisoning

I have long railed against the notion of “Search Engine Optimization”. I consider it to be nothing more than scam artistry. To try to make one’s living by luring legitimate search traffic to your shady business operation is a very slimy thing to do.

Today, I had a problem getting a workstation to obtain a DHCP address via DHCP relay to a different subnet while using a Symantec Ghost boot disk. I turned to Google, with the specific terms “ghost pxe boot dhcp relay”.

I found nothing immediately useful, but kept paging through the results, hoping for some buried gem. On page 9 of my search results, I saw these (which have been obfuscated and unlinked to prevent additional Google Juice going their way):

Welcome to MORTGAGEBUYER.MOC
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Welcome to CHARLIECREATIONS.MOC
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Welcome to DRIVINGINSTRUCTION.MOC
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Welcome to MUSIC-DB.MOC
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Welcome to TRAFFICHITTER.MOC
... email address terminal server licensing port ghost 8.2 pxe server can see ... coast virtual private server providers free Pxe Boot server proxy server ...

Who really thinks that someone looking for Ghost PXE boot information is going to click on a link to a mortgage site? Or a driving instruction site? I know I’ve occasionally been misled by search results to click a spammer’s clever link; but the links above are in no way confusing: they’re blatantly false.

I hate Search Engine Optimization, and I have zero respect for those who pursue it. They make the internet harder to use for everyone in the short-sighted pursuit of their own venal goals.