4 ms·
Sourceforge is essentially a gigantic set of Google doorway pages which MITM downloads initiated by unsuspecting (largely non-technical) Internet users of popul
by patio11 11y ago
Sourceforge is essentially a gigantic set of Google doorway pages which MITM downloads initiated by unsuspecting (largely non-technical) Internet users of popular free-as-in-beer projects. They're open about doing this. https://sourceforge.net/blog/gimp-win-project-wasnt-hijacked-just-abandoned/ https://sourceforge.net/blog/gimp-win-project-wasnt-hijacked...
These "mirror" (MITM) pages outrank the authoritative sites for many projects because Sourceforge has been around for 10+ years and has superior trust/backlink profiles compared to the newer author-blessed sites which presently host the software. Gimp is actually fortunate in this regard -- gimp.org is stickied to the top spot when searching [gimp] and Sourceforge floats around #8 or so.
Sourceforge should get hit with Google's standard penalty, which is "we smite your rankings with the hammer of an avenging god." Minimally, Google should at least tighten up their enforcement of AdWords policies. Their "installers" are per-se violations of the Unwanted Software Policy (http://www.google.com/about/company/unwanted-software-policy.html?hl=en http://www.google.com/about/company/unwanted-software-policy...).
How about it, resident Googlers?
- stfnppv 11y agoThere you go. https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/ https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/
- dordoka 11y agoReported
- Ueland 11y agoThank you, also reported the site now.
- joshrivers 11y agoReported
- gauravphoenix 11y agoReported. If you report, please provide some reason. I provided- "embeds malware/adware with downloads"
- TrevorJ 11y agoAnd done.