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At least in its current state, notepad.plus does redirect to the official website when clicking the download button. The site itself is mostly an AI generated m

At least in its current state, notepad.plus does redirect to the official website when clicking the download button. The site itself is mostly an AI generated mess, on top of that - its rankings are manipulated by articles like this, https://mycours.es/gamedesign2016/2023/03/21/quick-and-easy-guide-how-to-download-notepad-on/ https://mycours.es/gamedesign2016/2023/03/21/quick-and-easy-... https://www.bacsitannhang.com/how-to-install-notepad-on-ubuntu-a-step-by-step-2.html https://www.bacsitannhang.com/how-to-install-notepad-on-ubun... There are a few hundred of them but nothing overly crazy. Most of these articles look like a traditional "link pyramid" network. But I am surprised that the site hasn't been penalized by Google yet. All the signs are there that it is a bullshit site. Looking at the current rankings[0], it appears that the site is surging also. That's around 120,000~ Google clicks monthly based on my own estimates. Don probably has the numbers himself also as far as referrals go. [0]: https://i.imgur.com/SvOjalu.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/SvOjalu.jpeg

throw_m239339 3y ago
How did you find the backlinks?
- skilled 3y ago
  Using this, https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker/ https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker/ I use it a lot. It's great to find dev resources, hidden gems, sites that talk about a specific topic, etc. It does have a limit (100 links), but for purposes such as this one - it is an absolute must-have bookmark for me.
  - nolok 3y ago
    There used to be a link:url thing in google itself but it doesn't seem to be working that well anymore, like many thing on google search beside classic casual user search.
    - paledot 3y ago
      Casual user search works well on Google these days? That's news to me.
  - candiddevmike 3y ago
    Very neat tool, and I'd love to pay for the actual product but $100/month is too much unfortunately.
krisoft 3y ago
> At least in its current state, notepad.plus does redirect to the official website when clicking the download button. I’m sure you know this, so i will just state the obvious: the concern is that it might change in the future, or alternatively it might serve a different link if and when some finger printing indicates it.
2-3-7-43-1807 3y ago
> But I am surprised that the site hasn't been penalized by Google yet. I'm not really surprised at all.
- DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
  A site like that surely can’t be doing more than $50/day in Adsense revenue - methinks - probably less given how the same audience will be using adblock
nebulous1 3y ago
So the site is clearly parasitic, doesn't add anything and detracts from security. The term "malicious" does imply a little more to me though, like it's actually serving me altered software. I guess the question is whether doing this (injecting yourself into the download flow for an open source piece of software and profiting via ads while doing so) is "malicious". I can see an argument that it is, as at the very least the site very much looks like it's the official site unless you read the small print. I don't get the ads on that site at the moment. I assume they are the fake download button type of ad? In any case, we can fight this particular site, but as you point out if this is generated content then I don't see how we're going to manually fight the coming onslaught of similar endeavours, so if the search engines can't keep generated content off their results (and so far they haven't been able to), it's going to be an interesting few years.
- cbozeman 3y ago
  > I guess the question is whether doing this (injecting yourself into the download flow for an open source piece of software and profiting via ads while doing so) is "malicious". Yes. It's malicious. You're trying to earn money - in this case, ad revenue - on a piece of software with which you have nothing to do whatsoever. It's not only malicious, it's disgusting. I would state how I really feel, but dang would ban me.
  - baobabKoodaa 3y ago
    > Yes. It's malicious. You're trying to earn money ... No, please stop trying to redefine words. That's not what "malicious" means. I agree with you that this website is disgusting and needs to be taken down (as in "down from google") because there's a very real risk that the unscrupulous owners of the website _will eventually serve malicious software_ to juice their profits. But simply serving ads is not what the word "malicious" means.
    - birdman3131 3y ago
      Given the number of full screen ad's claiming my computer is infected I have ran across just serving ad's is often enough to count as malicious. (Not saying all sites do that but I have seen it often enough.)
callalex 3y ago
The site is down now so I can’t confirm, but I assume the site serves ads, which means Google is happy to have people visit it and profit.
larschdk 3y ago
You don't know that they do. They did redirect when you tested, but they may not for everyone. They could easily selectively download-snipe anyone they have identified by IP address or even regional. Big security threat.
forgotpwd16 3y ago
>But I am surprised that the site hasn't been penalized by Google yet. I am not. Google searches nowadays suck.
rpigab 3y ago
I love that you can find other adjacent s[cp]ams by looking at the other articles on mycours.es by the same author. Learn "Why you should play at a mobile casino", read reviews on cialis, viagra, ivermectin, in italian, also there's some code that looks like actual Brainfuck (but that might be obfuscated js) at the end of one of these articles, because why not. https://mycours.es/gamedesign2016/2023/04/20/miglior-prezzo-e-di-alta-qualita-ivermectin-europe-a-basso-costo-consegna-in-tutto-il-mondo-3-7-giorni/ https://mycours.es/gamedesign2016/2023/04/20/miglior-prezzo-... This ivermectin article from april 2023 looks legit, it seems to be part of a section labeled "gamedesign2016". Might be a small mistake. They say the internet's dead, I say it's flourishing, look at how easy it is, you can upload anything, make mistakes, it still "works". Some LEDs are blinking, everything looks alright to me.
dylan604 3y ago
Does Google actually punish sites that are generating clicks? From a layman's point of view, Google only punishes sites that do not play the SEO game and tries to live organically.
Lockal 3y ago
The earliest Web Archive snapshot of this website is from 2020, and back then it looked almost the same, so it is not a "new era" AI generated garbo. However in 2020 it the same `/download` link returned some executable. Probably it still does the same (because there is no point to make such links, when you can make a direct link), but it returns different content based on geography/cookies/etc.
- skilled 3y ago
  It is in fact "new era" of AI generated garbage, https://notepad.plus/best-alternatives-to-notepad-for-mac-os-is-it-possible-to-download-notepad-for-mac/ https://notepad.plus/best-alternatives-to-notepad-for-mac-os... this article recommends Atom, which means the person who maintains this site doesn't have a clue. <meta property="article:published_time" content="2023-05-30T01:12:52+00:00" />
nazka 3y ago
Which tool is in the picture?

throw_m239339 3y ago

How did you find the backlinks?

skilled 3y ago
Using this, https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker/ https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker/ I use it a lot. It's great to find dev resources, hidden gems, sites that talk about a specific topic, etc. It does have a limit (100 links), but for purposes such as this one - it is an absolute must-have bookmark for me.
- nolok 3y ago
  There used to be a link:url thing in google itself but it doesn't seem to be working that well anymore, like many thing on google search beside classic casual user search.
  - paledot 3y ago
    Casual user search works well on Google these days? That's news to me.
- candiddevmike 3y ago
  Very neat tool, and I'd love to pay for the actual product but $100/month is too much unfortunately.

krisoft 3y ago

> At least in its current state, notepad.plus does redirect to the official website when clicking the download button. I’m sure you know this, so i will just state the obvious: the concern is that it might change in the future, or alternatively it might serve a different link if and when some finger printing indicates it.

2-3-7-43-1807 3y ago

> But I am surprised that the site hasn't been penalized by Google yet. I'm not really surprised at all.

DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
A site like that surely can’t be doing more than $50/day in Adsense revenue - methinks - probably less given how the same audience will be using adblock

nebulous1 3y ago

So the site is clearly parasitic, doesn't add anything and detracts from security. The term "malicious" does imply a little more to me though, like it's actually serving me altered software. I guess the question is whether doing this (injecting yourself into the download flow for an open source piece of software and profiting via ads while doing so) is "malicious". I can see an argument that it is, as at the very least the site very much looks like it's the official site unless you read the small print. I don't get the ads on that site at the moment. I assume they are the fake download button type of ad? In any case, we can fight this particular site, but as you point out if this is generated content then I don't see how we're going to manually fight the coming onslaught of similar endeavours, so if the search engines can't keep generated content off their results (and so far they haven't been able to), it's going to be an interesting few years.

cbozeman 3y ago
> I guess the question is whether doing this (injecting yourself into the download flow for an open source piece of software and profiting via ads while doing so) is "malicious". Yes. It's malicious. You're trying to earn money - in this case, ad revenue - on a piece of software with which you have nothing to do whatsoever. It's not only malicious, it's disgusting. I would state how I really feel, but dang would ban me.
- baobabKoodaa 3y ago
  > Yes. It's malicious. You're trying to earn money ... No, please stop trying to redefine words. That's not what "malicious" means. I agree with you that this website is disgusting and needs to be taken down (as in "down from google") because there's a very real risk that the unscrupulous owners of the website _will eventually serve malicious software_ to juice their profits. But simply serving ads is not what the word "malicious" means.
  - birdman3131 3y ago
    Given the number of full screen ad's claiming my computer is infected I have ran across just serving ad's is often enough to count as malicious. (Not saying all sites do that but I have seen it often enough.)

callalex 3y ago

The site is down now so I can’t confirm, but I assume the site serves ads, which means Google is happy to have people visit it and profit.

larschdk 3y ago

You don't know that they do. They did redirect when you tested, but they may not for everyone. They could easily selectively download-snipe anyone they have identified by IP address or even regional. Big security threat.

forgotpwd16 3y ago

>But I am surprised that the site hasn't been penalized by Google yet. I am not. Google searches nowadays suck.

rpigab 3y ago

I love that you can find other adjacent s[cp]ams by looking at the other articles on mycours.es by the same author. Learn "Why you should play at a mobile casino", read reviews on cialis, viagra, ivermectin, in italian, also there's some code that looks like actual Brainfuck (but that might be obfuscated js) at the end of one of these articles, because why not. https://mycours.es/gamedesign2016/2023/04/20/miglior-prezzo-e-di-alta-qualita-ivermectin-europe-a-basso-costo-consegna-in-tutto-il-mondo-3-7-giorni/ https://mycours.es/gamedesign2016/2023/04/20/miglior-prezzo-... This ivermectin article from april 2023 looks legit, it seems to be part of a section labeled "gamedesign2016". Might be a small mistake. They say the internet's dead, I say it's flourishing, look at how easy it is, you can upload anything, make mistakes, it still "works". Some LEDs are blinking, everything looks alright to me.

dylan604 3y ago

Does Google actually punish sites that are generating clicks? From a layman's point of view, Google only punishes sites that do not play the SEO game and tries to live organically.

Lockal 3y ago

The earliest Web Archive snapshot of this website is from 2020, and back then it looked almost the same, so it is not a "new era" AI generated garbo. However in 2020 it the same `/download` link returned some executable. Probably it still does the same (because there is no point to make such links, when you can make a direct link), but it returns different content based on geography/cookies/etc.

skilled 3y ago
It is in fact "new era" of AI generated garbage, https://notepad.plus/best-alternatives-to-notepad-for-mac-os-is-it-possible-to-download-notepad-for-mac/ https://notepad.plus/best-alternatives-to-notepad-for-mac-os... this article recommends Atom, which means the person who maintains this site doesn't have a clue. <meta property="article:published_time" content="2023-05-30T01:12:52+00:00" />

nazka 3y ago

Which tool is in the picture?