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October 21, 2009

This blog has NOT been brought to you by an algorithm

Online content factory Demand Media has a new way to generate blogs and videos, using software and a network of human drones. Welcome to your Web nightmare

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I read a chilling story by Wired Magazine's Dan Roth last night about the future of online media, and I'm still trying to keep my breakfast down. It's not pretty.

Roth's story is about a company called Demand Media, which has introduced factory farming to the blogosphere. The company churns out 4,000 articles and videos every single day based on ideas spit out by a computer algorithm. The algorithm analyzes the keyword frequency from major search engines and the ad revenue that each of those keywords returns.

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Its goal: to find the topics people search for most often that also provide the most pennies per click. The algorithm then spits out a series of keywords that are manipulated into a fortune cookie-style headline by a pair of humans (at 8 cents a pop). That headline gets tossed out to Demand's cadre of hungry freelance writers, who get paid $15 a post to generate a few hundred words of drivel. Demand runs the post through a plagiarism detector, pays $2.50 for it to be copyedited and (maybe) another buck for fact checking, and then voila -- instant content, delivered at a tidy profit.

This is similar to a tactic that has long been used by sleazy SEO companies. They commission bogus, link-rich articles about a product or Web site, then post them online hoping to fool Google into thinking the particular product or site is more popular than it actually is. The problem here is that Demand Media is being used with increasing frequency by legitimate sites, like eHow, LiveStrong, and Cracked.

Want to crank out a video on that topic? No problem. You can make a cool $20 for that. Doesn't have to be in focus or anything. According to Roth, YouTube loves Demand Media because -- unlike 90 percent of the stuff people post -- it produces videos that are easy to sell ads against.

Here's an obnoxious YouTube video describing their services, which appropriately enough comes with an ad for cheap car insurance attached to it.

And now the really chilling bit. Per Roth:

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bz8x8c 21-Oct-09 1:03pm
Not to fear, Cringemeister, Google is already on it for us. Keep in mind that the problem is not really the content (there's far enough drivel on the web to shake a stick at, as you pointed out); it's the search engines that play their hand by ranking sites based on link counts and pure word content. Now, with Google implementing a way for readers to rate the content they view, content farms will lose some of their relevance over more useful content if readers are actually able to recognize quality content over drivel (yeah, this is questionable). Now, if the content farms actually manage to produce quality content, then who are you to complain about how it's done, but Google will not rest on their laurels while coyotes feed at the hand of their ranking engine. Of course, Rosenbleat (sic) will have made his fortune (again) by the time Google gets around to shaping up the situation, but everybody has to eat, right?
Buckminster 21-Oct-09 1:33pm
1 reply

I think that first content was composed by a bot in a comment farm.

Buckminster 21-Oct-09 1:35pm

OK, I meant, "I think that first COMMENT was composed by a bot in a CONTENT farm." But I made the mistake intentionally so that you'd know MY comment was not generated by an algorithm.

John the Econ 22-Oct-09 3:45am
This is just another inning in the endless game of cat-n-mouse. If I am tired of anything, it's of clients asking me to help them implement the latest gimmick they've read about to fool the search engines to get them to the top. It's a complete waste of time, because the people at Google are not as stupid as these people seem to think they are. By the time you've heard about it, they've long since been on this, and will have a counter-algorithm in place by the end of the week. These people are wasting a lot of money.
BD Man 22-Oct-09 3:03pm
I am not sure you really understand their business model. They use a predictive technology platform to understand what people are searching for (interested in) and they pay professionals to create content based on demand. Don't all writers try to find an audience? If the content is of high quality, and Google tends to do a good job of determining that, then why shouldn't it show up in search results? SEO shops are known for writing keyword dense spammy articles. There is a big difference between manipulation and legitimate ranking.
Red T-Rex 22-Oct-09 5:10pm
I think we now know how Randall Kennedy's column gets created.
Charlotte 19-Nov-09 1:43pm
Well, well, well. It may be sound trite, but I sure wish I had a quarter for every blogster out there, like you, Mr.Tynan, who feels so threatened by Rosenblatt and Demand Media that you stoop to criticizing and ridiculing your fellow professional writers. It is so unattractive and just so wrong. First of all, the Demand Studio writers are held to obviously stricter standards than you, Mr. Tynan, employ. RESEARCH. Yup, we have to do a lot of it. Unlike you, who state the following: "The problem here is that Demand Media is being used with increasing frequency by legitimate sites, like eHow, LiveStrong, and Cracked." Now, had you done the "professional" writer's research you would not have made such a moronic statement. You see, eHow, LiveStrong and Cracked, all "legitimate sites," as you state, are also OWNED by Demand Media. Why shouldn't these sites use Demand Media content? See what a fool you are? All the content on those sites is produced by Demand writers. You express fear that if Demand's methods proliferate "professional writers" will go the way of the dinosaur. Who the hell do you think is writing Demand's content? Gee, could they be professional writers? Wow, what a concept. Another missed research opportunity for you that, again, makes you look like a fool. So, you are the dinosaur and Demand writers are the rodents? Well, look out, Tynansaurus, this IS the new wave of journalism. The rodents are taking over.

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