Beware of Deceptive and Dangerous Web Sites

The Sad State of Search, or Why Can't I Find What I'm Looking For

As the director of an Illinois real estate pre-license school, I occasionally search key words just to see what type of real estate classes are available.

More and more frequently, I find myself being led to web sites that are no more than thinly veiled classified ads designed to take advantage of ad sense type advertising.  It appears that this type of advertising has led to an explosion of web sites that are heavy in key words but lack very little real content.

This is an aggravating and disappointing situation for both the consumer and the business person.  Not only do these sites outrank legitimate business sites, they pose a danger for the unwary visitor.  Fortunately, I use a free program called siteadvisor, that I strongly recommend to anyone who "surfs the net".  This program tests web sites and warns about those that might be considered to be adware, spyware, or other unwanted programs.

While searching for Illinois real estate continuing education today, I landed on two sites that siteadvisor warned me about.  Both sites were found on "Blogger"and contained hundreds of various keywords with no valid content.  The key words linked to directories that linked to real estate related sites.  Because of the siteadvisor warnings, I went no further.  The Blogger posting the key words left no profile but a name.

It is a shame that these types of sites are being developed.  I have no complaint with a business site that offers useful content that contains advertising that might be of interest to the searcher, my complaint is about the proliferation of sites offering little or worthless content designed to generate income when an unsuspecting surfer clicks on a link.  Are there any solutions to this problem other than blowing of steam in a blog like this, or is this a situation we must learn to accept?

If it is something we have to accept, then what is the value of search.  We have a useful tool here,let's not abuse it to the point that it has no value.  

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