Some people have claimed that my complete loathing for the content networks is unjustified, well here is my justification or at least some of it.

Yahoo’s most recent study claims that 3 out of 4 Blogger URLS are spam blogs!

Anyone brave enough to type “cheap tickets” in a search engine can find a plethora of one-page Web sites designed to drive traffic to other Web sites and generate click-through advertising revenue.

Three out of every four unique Blogspot.com URLs that appeared in the top 50 results for commercial queries were spam, the study said. Blogspot is the hosting site for Google’s blogging service. Blogs created for marketing purposes are sometimes referred to as “splogs.”

*if your interested here is a WebMasterWorld thread with a whole bunch more people who share my feelings for SPLOGS. In protest of blogger, I even moved my personal blog (Evan Roberts) to WordPress!.

In a recent NY Time article, Google let the cat out of the bag that in the upcoming months they will now show the URLs where your ads appear if you are part of the content network.

Jensense has good thoughts on the topic from multiple perspectives but from an advertisers point of view I think this is great. Given the low quality of Google’s content network (anyone can get approved for Adsense) and the fact that you have no idea where your ads will be showing, the chance for click fraud is extremely high. It is one reason that I have contended that MSN’s Content network would be more successful from an advertiser point of view based solely on the quality of sites the ads will appear (mostly MSN owned sites).

This is a big step for Google because it is shortening the time needed to run a quality content network campaign which will allow more advertisers to utilize the content network (ie Adsense). Something I would never consider until this report comes along. More on TechMeme

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