Google has just introduced a new hyperlink tag (“nofollow”) to thwart Blog spammers. Blog spammers will typically leave some sort of advertising message in the Comments area of the Blog along with a link to their website.
According to Google, the nofollow tag will look like this:
Visit my href=”http://www.example.com/” rel=”nofollow”>discount pharmaceuticals site.
MSN and Yahoo! and others have also jumped on board so this is one step towards standardization that is so badly needed on the Internet.
The good part is, is that there is no penalty involved for the Blog or the spammer. The hyperlink will simply not be indexed. This means no penalty for the Blog. This also means that the spammer is wasting his time leaving his company’s link in all of the Blogs all over the Internet.
This fix should be transparent to the Blog owner as the responsibility lays at the feet of the Blog software manufacturer to implement the change.
One downside of this tag, though, is that this tag will allow shady reciprocal link partners a new way to cheat you, by making sure your link on their site will not get indexed.
I think all-in-all, though this is a positive step forward in the fight against spammers on the Internet. I like the fact that the search engines are taking it upon themselves to find ways to make the spammers simply go away.
