4 ms·

The site has Demand Media creating content for it. I would consider that low value content, I suppose others might call that spam.

by gexla 16y ago

fourspace 16y ago
Indeed, it's the same company behind eHow.com and other SEO spam. I'm frankly a bit surprised that Lance Armstrong's organization would partner with such a company. Here's an excellent Wired article about Demand Media: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/ http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/
- bdickason 16y ago
  Good call! I'm familiar with Demand, but didn't realize it extended past blog posts to copy/pasting google maps entries. I agree with you on the organization partnership. It really surprised me when I saw it, and the content never actually gets surfaced to their homepage. I was googling for my business' name to see where we came up in search (note: the link I posted is not my business) and was surprised to see it surfaced on the second page of results. Super shady, especially coming from Lance :\
  - noarchy 16y ago
    I can't say that this surprises me. Though I don't necessarily share what may be the dominant opinion regarding the guy's character, Lance probably has nothing to do with any of this.
- spacemanaki 16y ago
  Actually, it's not that surprising. In that article, we learn that the founder of Demand "is also friends with cyclist (and Demand investor) Lance Armstrong, a fact that he mentions frequently. (“I’m supposed to go to France Wednesday with Lance, but I just can’t,” he confided, sighing. “It’s a lot of travel.”)."
drm237 16y ago
"I would consider that low value content" It's actually high value content (from a monetary perspective) otherwise Demand Media wouldn't be creating it. Low quality, high value. Spam is something else entirely.
- danilocampos 16y ago
  I think implicit in that remark is "low value to most people." It may be "high value" to the scummy people who create it but I can't say their value is of much interest to me or anyone else trying to find useful information.
- davidhollander 16y ago
  >It's actually high value ... Low quality, high value. Spam is something else entirely It's not high value from a monetary perspective either. It's low value, high volume. And anything low-value and untargetted enough IS spam. I would quantify value of an informational chunk by viewing it as a signal and measuring the degree of data compression present. For example, a Groupon listing has extremely high value as it compresses all of the economic data in an entire city to a single very best coupon at a rate of one per day. The only difference between spam, ads, and content is the probability that the degree of compression or informational value they offer is greater than the attentional resources required to absorb it. The threshold values between categories vary person to person of course.
mmaunder 16y ago
28 million pages of useless spam: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=site:livestrong.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=241062ed1d424d73 http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=site:live...

The site has Demand Media creating content for it. I would consider that low value content, I suppose others might call that spam.

by gexla 16y ago

The site has Demand Media creating content for it. I would consider that low value content, I suppose others might call that spam.

fourspace 16y ago

Indeed, it's the same company behind eHow.com and other SEO spam. I'm frankly a bit surprised that Lance Armstrong's organization would partner with such a company. Here's an excellent Wired article about Demand Media: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/ http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/

bdickason 16y ago
Good call! I'm familiar with Demand, but didn't realize it extended past blog posts to copy/pasting google maps entries. I agree with you on the organization partnership. It really surprised me when I saw it, and the content never actually gets surfaced to their homepage. I was googling for my business' name to see where we came up in search (note: the link I posted is not my business) and was surprised to see it surfaced on the second page of results. Super shady, especially coming from Lance :\
- noarchy 16y ago
  I can't say that this surprises me. Though I don't necessarily share what may be the dominant opinion regarding the guy's character, Lance probably has nothing to do with any of this.
spacemanaki 16y ago
Actually, it's not that surprising. In that article, we learn that the founder of Demand "is also friends with cyclist (and Demand investor) Lance Armstrong, a fact that he mentions frequently. (“I’m supposed to go to France Wednesday with Lance, but I just can’t,” he confided, sighing. “It’s a lot of travel.”)."

drm237 16y ago

"I would consider that low value content" It's actually high value content (from a monetary perspective) otherwise Demand Media wouldn't be creating it. Low quality, high value. Spam is something else entirely.

danilocampos 16y ago
I think implicit in that remark is "low value to most people." It may be "high value" to the scummy people who create it but I can't say their value is of much interest to me or anyone else trying to find useful information.
davidhollander 16y ago
>It's actually high value ... Low quality, high value. Spam is something else entirely It's not high value from a monetary perspective either. It's low value, high volume. And anything low-value and untargetted enough IS spam. I would quantify value of an informational chunk by viewing it as a signal and measuring the degree of data compression present. For example, a Groupon listing has extremely high value as it compresses all of the economic data in an entire city to a single very best coupon at a rate of one per day. The only difference between spam, ads, and content is the probability that the degree of compression or informational value they offer is greater than the attentional resources required to absorb it. The threshold values between categories vary person to person of course.

mmaunder 16y ago

28 million pages of useless spam: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=site:livestrong.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=241062ed1d424d73 http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=site:live...