The Search for E-Quality

No surprise that the Internet is littered with junk sites. The worst are the automatically generated lists of links, based on a few keywords. The resulting pages are usually just an excuse to run Google ad boxes, with no original content or even meaningful groups of links.

As an example, here’s a few of today’s new “sites” linking to StillMadeinUSA.com:

• a site purporting to be about Honda Accord replacement parts—includes a link to my blog post that mentions the terms “thermostat” and “Honda” but is really a discussion of energy saving techniques
  
• a site masquerading as a pottery information site—includes a link to my Kitchen/Dining page—the page is almost totally ads
• or how about a site called Beds Info—Find the best information on beds here—again, the page is almost totally ads

Even worse than these link fields are the sites that “scrape” entire pages from my site and post them, surrounded by Google ads. These make me so mad I’m not going to post the URL.

Why does this bug me? Because I spend a lot of time building content for my website, and in most cases I do NOT use Google ad boxes because the ads served would not be for American-made products. Why in the heck should someone else get financial benefits from my work? Grr… Also, although these junk sites are fairly apparent, they clog up the search engine results so that true sites are harder to find. So, is the Internet democratic or anarchic? (And, is “anarchic” a word?!)