Click Farms

[Heyduke]

A read a while back that a Brazilian company offers customers a Facebook girlfriend. For about $30 a month, you'll get pictures of her to post on your page. She also post nice, sweet comments to your timeline, wishes you a happy birthday and anniversary, and comments positively on all of of your inane posts. etc..

Yesterday I read about 'click farms'. Apparently, website security has caught up with bots. So, in Indonesia, for example, there are gigantic warehouses full of real people that click on stuff, 'like' stuff, watch videos on You-Tube, etc.. For about $10, you can order 100 'likes'.

Government gets in on this action too. I don't use Facebook, so I don't know exactly how it works, but all of our Government agencies have a budget for boosting the number of 'likes' on their webpages.

[Cthulhu]

Guess the next logical step would be to ban the internet for being riddled with false information.

Or find a way to obtain the general IP addy's of all these mysterious 'likes' and display it for the public.

But I think the government would like to ban the internet for citizens more.

[jillian]

it isn't really about fake "girlfriends" it's about corporations using it to charge advertisers more ...


But an Associated Press examination has found a growing global marketplace for fake clicks, which tech companies struggle to police. Online records, industry studies and interviews show companies are caYouTube wiped out billions of music industry video views last December after auditors found some videos apparently had exaggerated numbers of views. Its parent-company, Google, is also constantly battling people who generate fake clicks on their ads.

*snip*

And Facebook, whose most recent quarterly report estimated as many as 14.1 million of its 1.18 billion active users are fraudulent accounts, does frequent purges. That’s particularly important for a such a company that was built on the principle that users are real people.pitalizing on the opportunity to make millions of dollars by duping social media.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/01/05/fake-social-media-click-farms-part-of-big-business/

good businesses are fighting back against it.

[Heyduke]

Guess the next logical step would be to ban the internet for being riddled with false information.

Or find a way to obtain the general IP addy's of all these mysterious 'likes' and display it for the public.

But I think the government would like to ban the internet for citizens more.

The government loves the internet. Yes, they'll have to find a way to sift through all the fakery. They're working on that. And I dare say that the US government is probably the largest customer of fake internet stuff in the world. Dissatisfaction with a government agency? Hire a click farm in Indonesia to 'like' the hell out of it. No bad statistic or reputation is beyond rehabilitation.

[Cthulhu]

The government loves the internet. Yes, they'll have to find a way to sift through all the fakery. They're working on that. And I dare say that the US government is probably the largest customer of fake internet stuff in the world. Dissatisfaction with a government agency? Hire a click farm in Indonesia to 'like' the hell out of it. No bad statistic or reputation is beyond rehabilitation.

Especially when they spend another's money to do it as well with a debt that bears no personal consequence to the decision makers.

[Heyduke]

Michelle Obama has 2 million fake twitter followers. You can buy 1,000 twitter followers for $9.00. For Michelle, her 2 mil would have costed $18,000, but she probably got the bulk rate... like a million for $5,000.

Not to pick on the Obamas. This is just the way of the future, and whoever in the next first lady I'm sure will do the same.

[nathanbforrest45]

Interesting thread.

[Peter1469]

About internet advertising. I have noticed that if I buy something on Amazon, I get ads to buy..., the thing I just bought! Not very effective....

[undine]

I'm not surprised. I think we have shills for McDonald's and Walmart posting on this forum.

[Heyduke]

I'm not surprised. I think we have shills for McDonald's and Walmart posting on this forum.

McDonald's? I think the shills that want a $15 minimum wage on this forum are actually from the robot industry. In Los Angeles last year, they invented the fast food worker robot.

[Newpublius]

About internet advertising. I have noticed that if I buy something on Amazon, I get ads to buy..., the thing I just bought! Not very effective....

Well, that's because they know to display ads relevant to what you've been searching for. I used to own a US Constitution website and people would get pissed off because the google Adsense ads would display Obama or Romney ads. I'd tell them, "hey, I don't display them, google does" -- if you had been searching for widgets, it'd have widgets there.

I also am an amateur photographer and I have photoblogs on NYC, four different websites on blogger, typepad, tumblr and wordpress which link to social media accounts -- Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, google+

between likes, follows, repins, circles! hearts....all adding up to a 'klout' score , I'd like to see how all of this translates into, you know.....actual money.

but to get started it makes sense to boost the social media accounts and make yourself look more socially connected.

furthermore, with respect to facebook, the more likes one has, the more likes you get, so right now on my NYC facebook I have 4600 plus likes and I'll get about 10 people per week who just randomly like the page. If I had 0 likes, facebook would likely not display my page at all.....

[Newpublius]

I'm not surprised. I think we have shills for McDonald's and Walmart posting on this forum.

McCafe is so much better than Starbucks. :rollseyes:

[undine]

McCafe is so much better than Starbucks. :rollseyes:Um, no. What is your point?

[Newpublius]

Um, no. What is your point?

sigh, I'm farcically 'shilling' for mcdonalds.....was that really over your head?

[Heyduke]

sigh, I'm farcically 'shilling' for mcdonalds.....was that really over your head?

I just liked your post. Or, did I? Maybe you hired a click farmer in Waziristan to like it.

[undine]

sigh, I'm farcically 'shilling' for mcdonalds.....was that really over your head?
No.

[Newpublius]

No.

Well, then why were you asking me what my point was?

[undine]

Well, then why were you asking me what my point was?
Because I don't know what it was, duh.

[Newpublius]

Because I don't know what it was, duh.

Well, this is getting circular in a hurry.