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Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Google

Google disables an official Google blog after deciding it was spam

Google Custom SearchThis is how you know you've got a problem with splogs (or spam blogs created for the sole purpose of making money through advertising or sales of often dubious products). Google accidentally disabled the Official Google Custom Search blog this morning after Google software identified the blog as spam.

Earlier this year, a highly publicized report suggested that as many as 3 out of 4 blogs hosted on Google's Blogspot could be splogs. Google's been stepping up their efforts to identify and disable those blogs. But either the company is being a bit too aggressive, or the folks working on this particular blog need to pay better attention to their inbox.

Once a blog is identified as spam, a message is sent to the author. If that person doesn't respond, the account can be suspended. And that's what happened in this case, because nobody had responded to the warnings.

Earlier today, Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped noticed that most of the content was missing from the Google Custom Search blog, and it had been replaced by a poorly worded description of Google's custom search feature. Eagle eyed readers will also note that the web site header was changed.

Lenssen wondered if the site had been hacked. It turns out that the truth was a bit stranger and funnier than fiction. Once the official blog had been suspended, someone swooped in and briefly took over the domain. Everything's back to normal now. But it makes us wonder if Google might want to prohibit users from snatching up disabled domain names until they've been down for at least a few weeks or months.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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