Summary: Microsoft meets and promotes the grey Web

MICROSOFT'S renamed search engine has obviously inherited all the same deficiencies of its old identity (Live/MSN), including the spam Webmasters were complaining about. Based on this post from SEO Roundtable, Microsoft carries on filling Web site logs with "junk" requests that give the illusion of search gains. Here is Microsoft's excuse:

Historically, Bing (Microsoft/Live Search/MSN Search) is known for using referral requests to attempt to find cloaked pages or find search spam. Since April 2007, Microsoft has been sending weird referrals to many webmasters. They were known as internal cloaking tests designed by Microsoft's search quality team. But even though they promised to cool it with those visible tests, it came back time and time again.

Yes, this never stopped. Webmasters have complained about it for well over a year (since 2007). According to a new report, despite all those so-called "attempt[s] to find cloaked pages or find search spam" (which is Microsoft's excuse for justifying its own spam), Microsoft's search is promoting phony drugs. There are two press releases about it, apparently. This is already covered in:

• Microsoft Slammed Over Bing's Sponsored Online Drug Ads



• Most Microsoft Bing-Sponsored Search Ads Point To Phony Pharmacies



• Report: 90% Of Bing’s Internet Pharmacies Search Ads Lead To Rogue Sites



• Fraud groups ding Bing for illicit pharmacy promos



• Fake Microsoft patch malware campaign makes a comeback



• Does Bing 'Find' Illicit Meds Sites?

A report this week claims that nearly 90 percent of Microsoft-sponsored search results for online pharmacies found by the Bing search engine lead to fraudulent sites.

Microsoft is by all means part of the Dark Side of the Internet. Is it that desperate to make money? ⬆