The Times, It Is a-Changing

Search engine optimization, the practice of trying to place content as high as possible in search engine results, is a respectable part of the Internet economy. But it has a dark side, known as "black hat S.E.O." or "link-spamming," in which search engines or social media sites are deluged with links in an effort to artificially goose traffic.

Now, Rupert Murdoch's The Times newspaper in London has been caught link-spamming social media websites in an effort to drive viewers to its website, Times Online.

The spamming campaign was uncovered by Andy Baio, a blogger in Portland, Oregon, who co-founded social events site Upcoming.org, which he sold to Yahoo in 2005.

Baio found that Piotr Wyspianski, an employee of The Times's search engine marketing firm, Sitelynx, posted thousands of links to community and social news websites without disclosing his identity or affiliation, in an effort to drive traffic to Times Online. Wyspianski had accounts on Mahalo, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Metafilter, Yahoo! Answers, and other sites.

In some cases, Baio found, Wyspianski posted under the assumed identity of his wife.

In an IM interview with Portfolio.com, Baio distinguished Wyspianski's actions from legitimate search engine optimization.

"It's the deception that really bothers me here," Baio said. "If all the accounts were named 'timesonline' or 'thetimesuk' and they were transparent about promoting their articles, I don't think anybody would have a problem with it."

"But by posting everything as a regular user, and not disclosing their affiliation with Sitelynx or The Times, it's just fake grassroots promotion," Baio said. "I think we've come to expect this kind of lame astroturfing from corporate America, but newspapers should be held to a higher standard of ethics and journalistic practice."

The Times said it was unaware of Wyspianski's spamming campaign.

Tom Whitwell, Times Online's Communities Editor, offered Baio the following comment: "We didn't realize Sitelynx were doing this kind of linkspamming. They were paid to do link building, not just dropping bulk links."

Graham Hansell, the founder of Sitlynx, told Baio that Wyspianski has been suspended from the company, and added that he was dismayed that this kind of activity took place.

"Sitelynx is ashamed to be associated in any way with anything related to link spamming as I am proud to have built a company since 1996 based on 'white hat' principles in a very gray/black hat industry," Hansell said.

by Sam Gustin