Is someone trying to game StumbleUpon for a profit? or to cost someone money?
I was stumbling this morning while working on a problem in my application when I came across a stumble to NewEgg.com that piqued my curiosity. The URL looked like this…
It would seem to me that the user that discovered the page intentionally put in some kind of Google Adwords referral code. Why would someone try to do that? Would it make them money? Would it cost NewEgg money? Both? Neither?
I reviewed the user page of the StumbleUpon user that discovered this site, and found that his only other discovery was to cabelas.com where AdWords code is in the URL also.
I started a discussion on OpenDesigns.org, and as of this writing, have not received any feedback yet. Gaming “Social” websites is nothing new. Many a site has been banned from Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and dZone for questionable practices and spam. I’m not sure that something nefarious is going on here, but regardless my curiosity has been peaked.
So tell me readers (both of them), am I onto something here?
I don’t think the user will get any use of bookmarking these URLs.
I really don’t know enough about AdSense to know if that would work, however the URLs don’t look to me as though they contain any information that would link AdSense to the submitter’s website/account. Except perhaps the Cabela’s link.
Namely the: rid=0180101070502, but I’m not entirely sure that’s AdSense related.
You may, though, have discovered a plot. Perhaps they’re trying to get money from Google, perhaps they’re trying to get money from Google to Cabela’s and NewEgg.
There is always someone looking to make a buck. I think stumblers should have a button to push so StumbleUpon.com can block them. Let’s keep this awesome place clean. By the way, that doesn’t mean stumblers can link to a great service, great cause, or great product. Stumblers should have a choice to push a link.
Good point swannyteach, I agree completely. More options are needed to classify bad stumbles.
Thanks to everyone for stopping by, commenting, and reviewing this article. I’m having a blast watching the traffic come in.
nice thoughts, i think its imperative that we keep SU clean from all the idiotshit, this goes for comments, as well as content.