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Bogus News Alerts

by Heidi White
5 replies
Anyone else seen a trending up of bogus News alerts?

I have a Google News Alert set up for Lin Yu Chun, because I never sold the bleeding Fan Club Page and I get regular visitors - so, whenever anything in English or new comes up about LYC - I usually post it to the blog.

Last week, I had about 6 "new alerts" - basically rehashing the story from last year with the original videos of the "I will always love you" song in some blog post just now I received this one from:

Title: Lin Yu Chun performs live on America’s Got Talent YouTube Results
Page Type: Adsense blog.
Article Content: Embedded YT video from 2010.
Additional Content: None - No other text.

How can that be considered 'news?'

I thought it was supposed to be difficult to get your blog listed as news content in Google.

Apparently not....:confused:
#alerts #bogus #news
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    It's difficult ... there's a lot of work involved in getting accepted into GNews. Who knows what that alert is about, but there are spammers who build GNews sites and then when they get accepted start putting out spam content and junk, thinking G won't notice now that they're in. They notice. Sooner or later.
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    • Profile picture of the author Heidi White
      Thanks - that's what I figured. Once you're in - you're in - at least for a while.

      I've thought about putting a widget on a few of my sites, featuring the latest headlines from Google News on a specific topic. I'm less sanguine about going that route with issues like this out there. It's one thing to have old news - but if the 'spammers' take people to dangerous sites - I'm putting my readers at risk and might be liable?

      Ergg!

      (or I could just write a disclaimer and add it to my footer...and not be such a worry wart!)
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by MostlyHarmless View Post

        Thanks - that's what I figured. Once you're in - you're in - at least for a while.

        I've thought about putting a widget on a few of my sites, featuring the latest headlines from Google News on a specific topic. I'm less sanguine about going that route with issues like this out there. It's one thing to have old news - but if the 'spammers' take people to dangerous sites - I'm putting my readers at risk and might be liable?

        Ergg!

        (or I could just write a disclaimer and add it to my footer...and not be such a worry wart!)
        GNews did a massive cleanup around the months before and after Christmas. Things have settled down quite a bit and there is much less spam in GNews now than there was. I would put the widget there if you want it there.
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        • Profile picture of the author Heidi White
          Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

          GNews did a massive cleanup around the months before and after Christmas. Things have settled down quite a bit and there is much less spam in GNews now than there was. I would put the widget there if you want it there.
          Know of a good widget (free preferably) for that purpose?
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          • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
            Banned
            Originally Posted by MostlyHarmless View Post

            Know of a good widget (free preferably) for that purpose?
            No ... I'm just a news junkie and read news a lot but I haven't put a newsfeed on any of my sites.
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