Google has released its annual report on search for spam, showing that SpamBrain, a machine learning-based spam identification system, will take six times as many actions against spam sites in 2021 as it did in 2020.
By identifying these sites, Google claims a 70% reduction in hacked spam and a 75% reduction in garbled spam on the hosting platform.
By identifying sites with disruptive or malicious behavior, Google is able to keep 99% of searches spam-free.
SpamBrain showcases continuous improvement of Google AI
Despite Google’s spam detection system 2018the report marks the first external reference as “SpamBrain”.
Using machine learning, this AI platform becomes more effective at detecting and eliminating spam, while evolving to address new types of spam and prevent abuse.
This includes the ability to identify sites that have been hacked or otherwise compromised to install harmful logging software on users’ computers.
Another area of improvement is identifying garbled spam sites consisting of nonsense text full of keywords.
black hat SEO professionals use these to improve page rankings and sometimes even spend money on spam links to trick search engines into increasing their PageRank quality scores.
Google is committed to search quality and user safety
To improve search quality and protect user safety, Google claims to have made significant strides in fighting link spam, scams and online harassment.
mid year Link Spam Updates Improved link evaluation for search engines and enhanced ability to detect and exclude unnatural links from search results across multiple languages.
Last year, consumers lost over $5.8 billion Fraud, a 70% increase over 2020. To address this, Google has expanded its user safety program.
It was able to reduce fraudulent search results by 40%, building on the previous year’s work.
As part of its commitment to user safety, it also changed the method Online harassment and the way the results of inquiries vulnerable to bad actors are handled. This includes sites that use “pay-to-remove” content.
Combat ranking manipulation
Recognizing the unethical practices some sites use to circumvent their quality guidelines, Google has also taken steps to reduce ranking manipulation. This includes changing the way product reviews are handled and allowing users to report manipulative behavior.
In 2021, Google made two major updates to the way it evaluates product reviews:
Google said the updates succeeded in reducing low-quality reviews while promoting reviews with better content and author expertise.
source: Google Search Center
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