Gamers boosting on YouTube
p2pnet.net news:- Linspire creator Michael Robertson originally owned MP3.com, the once independent music site featuring indie music from independent musicians.
MP3.com is now a CNET Networks Entertainment property, but it was in decline even before it became a corporate adventure, one of the main reasons being: songs were being gamed by traders, giving false readings of their popularity.
Now the same kind of thing appears to be happening on YouTube, says InfoWorld.
A short commercial for Scottish energy drink IRN-BRU, “isn’t all that original or really very funny,” says the story, continuing, “All the same, the clip ‘R0049_TDAU8′ garnered 113 million hits and received a five-star review, with more than 70,000 visitors giving the clip the popular video site’s highest content approval rating.”
It no longer graces YouTube and the site’s Comments & Responses area, “is filled with messages wondering how the clip – which parodies a woman giving birth to a can of fizzy beverage – was even flagged as interesting in the first place,” the story says.
In fact, “The credit for the success of the clip, researchers say, lies with schemers who are gaming the online voting systems used by content-sharing networks to serve their own ends”.
But that’s not all. The gaming includes the spread of malicious software and adware, InfoWorld has Net fraud researcher and Harvard University assistant professor Ben Edelman stating.
“Scammers have created sophisticated programs that mimic legitimate YouTube traffic and provide automated feedback for videos and other content they wish to promote,” it quotes Edelman as stressing. “In other cases, scammers merely purchase the traffic from companies who have developed a cottage industry in providing artificial Web site visits, he said.”
But, “By either method, schemers are corrupting the systems used to drive much of the content pushed to the most popular areas of YouTube and similar sites, Edelman declares. “In the process, they are also lowering the value of the multimedia portals and finding ways to line their own pockets.”
The IRN-BRU clip was, “probably pumped up by a combination of paid traffic and a malicious program that forces people’s browsers to secretly imprint the site as they go about their normal Web browsing,” says InfoWorld, adding:
The paid traffic is provided by any one of a number of companies, such as Buyhitscheap.com, that offer Web traffic for a fee. Individuals at Buyhitsheap.com did not respond to efforts by InfoWorld to speak with someone regarding the traffic pumping issue. The Web site is registered through DomainsByProxy.com of Scottsdale, Ariz. (Slogan “Your identity is nobody’s business but ours.”)
The malicious programs automatically refresh infected browsers to continually increase traffic to a specific piece of content.
“At first it might seem like they are trying to simply get their video to the top of the site for promotional purposes, but it’s just as likely that they really just want to trick people into visiting their malware or adware sites,” says Edelman in the story.
Also See:
InfoWorld – Scammers gaming YouTube ratings for profit, May 16, 2007
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