Extremely Negative or Malicious Reputation

Website

Description

Site selling children’s

Extremely negative reputation information: This business has a BBB rating of F. There is a

news article about financial fraud. There are many reviews on websites describing how users

jungle gym

sent money and did not receive anything in return.

Website

Description

Site selling products

Extremely negative/malicious reputation information: This website engaged in criminal

related to eyewear

behavior such as physically threatening users.

Organization serving

Extremely negative reputation information: There are many detailed negative articles on

the hospitalized

news sites and charity watchdog sites describing fraud and financial mishandling about this

veteran community

organization.

Type of Webpage/Content

Lowest Quality Characteristics of the Page

Explanation

Lowest: Forum page –

•

The page has a large amount of

This is an example of a spammed forum page,

Watch RoboCop online

spammed comments

where the goal is to try and get users to watch a

movie online, which has nothing to do with the

purpose of the site.

Lowest: Copied content –

•

Lowest quality MC (copied content with

All MC is a copy of an old

little or no time, effort, expertise, manual

Wizard of Oz

curation, or added value for users)

Wikipedia article. See Section 7.4.7. The current

Wikipedia page offers much more content, links,

references, etc. This page doesn’t add much value

for users.

Lowest: Copied content –

•

Lowest quality MC (copied content with

In this article, the word “flowers” is replaced by “fs”

little or no time, effort, expertise, manual

“Flowers” replaced by “Fs”

curation, or added value for users)

throughout, which makes it difficult to find the

original source of the article. The original source

may be this page. The modifications make it very

difficult to read and are a poor user experience.

•

An unsatisfying amount of MC for the

Lowest: Unsatisfying

topic of the page

amount of MC – Wedding

•

Poor page design

dresses

•

Lacking helpful SC for the purpose of the

This page exhibits many Lowest quality

page

characteristics.

Lowest: Malicious, harmful,

or deceptive – Asks for

•

Malicious, harmful, or deceptive

This is a shopping checkout page, but it asks for the

personal information

(YMYL)

user’s government ID number, driver’s license

number, ATM pin number, bank account

information, etc.

Type of Webpage/Content

Lowest Quality Characteristics of the Page

Explanation

Lowest: Autogenerated

content – About LG imprint

•

Lowest quality MC (autogenerated

This page was created to get users to click on Ads.

lock code

content)

All content is copied from other sources, and the

page is auto-generated. The fact that users are told

that the page is auto-generated does not change the

rating.

Lowest: Fraudulent –

•

Extremely negative or malicious

There are many claims of fraud and financial

Charity (YMYL)

reputation

problems about this organization on reputable news

sites and charity watchdog sites: Negative review 1,

Negative review 2, Negative review 3, and Negative

review 4.

Lowest: No website

•

No website information for YMYL website

There is no information about who created this

website, no contact information, and no authorship

information – About dry

•

Lacking expertise; not very trustworthy or

information.

sockets (YMYL)

authoritative for the purpose of the page

Medical pages require a high degree of user

trust. Because there is no information about who

owns this website and who created this content, we

will consider this an untrustworthy website.

Lowest: Fake directory

•

Deceptive page design (Ads disguised as

The links on the page appear to link to helpful

page - Mesothelioma

MC)

(YMYL)

•

No website information for YMYL topic

articles, but in fact the links are Ads that do not go to

articles. This is a YMYL topic, but there is no

indication about who is responsible for this content

or website.

Lowest: Fake search page

•

Deceptive (fake search page)

– Chicken recipes

Advertising should never disguise itself as the MC of

the page. Pages with Ads that are designed to look

like MC should be considered deceptive.

Lowest: Fake search page

•

Deceptive (fake search page)

– Chairs

This page was created to make money from clicks

on Ads rather than to help users.

Type of Webpage/Content

Lowest Quality Characteristics of the Page

Explanation

Lowest: Deceptive page

•

Lowest quality MC (copied content with

This looks like an information website for a drug.

little or no time, effort, expertise, manual

The real purpose of this page is to get users to this

purpose – Viagra

curation, or added value for users)

website, and then get them to click on the “order

(YMYL)

•

No website information for YMYL website

now” link, which takes users to another website.

All MC on this page is copied with little or no time,

effort, expertise, manual curation, or added value for

users. Here is the original source.

Lowest: Deceptive page

This page leads users to believe that they may

•

Deceptive purpose

qualify for a $1000 Walmart Gift Card. They have to

purpose – Walmart gift

•

Highly untrustworthy

take a lengthy survey which is designed to get them

card survey

to install a shopping toolbar, purchase products, and

sign up for paid trials. The only “way out” or to

continue after a certain point is to provide credit card

information. Despite appearances, there is no

affiliation with Amazon.

Lowest: Deceptive page

This page claims to be an independent review of a

purpose and design –

•

Deceptive page design and deceptive

product, but the only links on the page are

Emery cat toy page

purpose

prominent monetized links to purchase this product

on another website. This page deliberately lacks SC

so that the only “way out” is to click on a monetized

link. This is a deceptive page design because it is

designed to get users to click on the prominent links.

•

Purpose of the page to make money with

Lowest: Deceptive page

very little or no attempt to help users

This page is titled “Washing Machine Reviews,” but

purpose and design –

•

Lowest quality MC (copied content with

there are no reviews on the page and the content is

Washing machine reviews

little or no time, effort, expertise, manual

copied from another website. The links all go to a

curation, or added value for users)

single Internet retailer selling washing machines.

This is a deceptive page design because it is

designed to get users to click on the prominent links.

Type of Webpage/Content

Lowest Quality Characteristics of the Page

Explanation

This page contains a fake survey, which appears to

promise users the opportunity to win an Apple

MacBook Air, an iPhone 5c, or a Galaxy S4.

However, after completing some survey questions

Lowest: Deceptive page

•

Deceptive purpose

and selecting the product the user would like to win,

purpose – Fake survey

the user is redirected to website after website to

•

Highly untrustworthy

page

complete more and more survey questions, while

being asked to supply more and more personal

information, including medical information and bank

account information.

There is no information about who is responsible,

even though this website asks for highly personal

information such as bank account numbers. Despite

appearances, there is no affiliation with Google.

The title of this page is “Rachael Ray Diet Blog,” but

the page has nothing to do with Rachael Ray or her

diet or her products. This page exists to sell

Lowest: Deceptive page

products using Rachael Ray’s name and image. In

purpose – Rachael Ray

•

Deceptive purpose and deceptive content

fact, there is a brown-text-on-brown-background

Diet Blog

section at the bottom of the page (which we

consider to be hidden text) that says “Disclaimer:

Rachael Ray is not affiliated with nor does she

sponsor or endorse this blog.” This page is

deceptive in spite of the disclaimer!

This example has been annotated with red text at

the top to point out deceptive aspects of this page.

Lowest: Deceptive page

design – Javascript alert

•

Deceptive or misleading page design

Some users might not even notice the MC because

box

it is under a long list of Ads. Users may mistake the

Ads for MC.

Lowest: Keyword stuffing –

•

Lacking in purpose

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish, keyword

Imodium for dogs

stuffing)

This page has no helpful MC and no helpful

purpose.

Type of Webpage/Content

Lowest Quality Characteristics of the Page

Explanation

The homepage of this website indicates it was last

updated in 2005. Additionally, using the Internet

Archive Wayback Machine, we can see that this

Lowest: Unmaintained

•

The website appears to be not

page hasn’t changed since 2005. That is cause for

maintained or updated

concern on a medical website, which needs a high

YMYL page – Medical

•

No website information for YMYL website

degree of trust as medical advice changes over

information website (YMYL)

•

Lacking expertise; not very trustworthy or

time. Unmaintained medical information can be

authoritative for the purpose of the page

dangerous.

•

Difficult to distinguish MC from SC, Ads

There is no information about who created or is

responsible for this content. There is no evidence of

E-A-T. Also, the page design makes it very difficult

to tell which links are SC and which are actually

Ads.

Lowest: Malicious website –

•

Very negative, malicious,

This website took users’ money and physically

Site selling products related

threatened users who complained. These articles

to eyewear

or financially fraudulent reputation

on Wikipedia and the New York Times describe the

deceptive techniques used by this website and

provide other negative information about the website

and its owner.

Lowest: Gibberish –

•

Lacking in purpose

Celebrity site

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish)

This page has no helpful MC and no helpful

purpose.

Lowest: Gibberish – PDF

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish)

file

•

Lack of purpose

This is a gibberish PDF file. We don’t have any idea

why this was created. There are no links or Ads.

This page has no purpose and no reason to exist.

Lowest: Gibberish – Flu

•

Lacking in purpose

treatment

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish)

This page has no helpful MC and no helpful

purpose.

Lowest: Gibberish – NFL

•

Lacking in purpose

jerseys

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish)

This page appears to have been created just to link

to other pages.

Type of Webpage/Content

Lowest Quality Characteristics of the Page

Explanation

Lowest: Gibberish– Acai

•

Lacking in purpose

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish, keyword

This page appears to have been created to lure

berry cleanse

stuffing)

users interested in “acai berry” to the page so they

will click on the top links. The text is gibberish and

full of keyword stuffing.

Lowest: Lack of purpose –

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish)

Free credit report

•

Highly untrustworthy

This page has deceptive features, such as a friend

request, a prize alert, and a download button.

Lowest: Lack of purpose –

•

Lacking in purpose

•

Lowest quality MC (gibberish, keyword

Las Vegas gambling terms

stuffing)

This page has no MC and no helpful purpose.

Lowest: Highly

•

Highly untrustworthy, unreliable,

untrustworthy – Article

unauthoritative, inaccurate or misleading

This content is poorly written and uses a lot of words

about how to cure stomach

•

No website information for YMYL topic

flu

to say very little. There is no information about who

is responsible for the content and no contact

information for this YMYL medical topic.

Lowest: Highly

This is a download website with only one page – this

untrustworthy – Download

•

Highly untrustworthy (suspect download)

page. There is a lot of text (with grammar and

page

spelling errors) promising that users will make

money from this free download. The purpose of the

page seems to be to entice users into clicking on the

links with the promise of making money.

Lowest: Low quality MC –

•

Lowest quality MC

This content has many problems: poor grammar,

Article about popping

•

Lacking expertise; not very trustworthy or

and sentences which are meaningless or state

pimples

authoritative for the purpose of the page

something obvious. For example: "Popping pimples

could be or could be not the new trend of getting rid

of them." In addition, the “About the Author” section

of the page has an Ad, but no information about the

author.

Type of Webpage/Content

Lowest Quality Characteristics of the Page

Explanation

Lowest: Low quality MC –

•

Lowest quality MC

The level of expertise of the author of this content is

Article about getting a

•

Lacking expertise; not very trustworthy or

mortgage in Texas

authoritative for the purpose of the page

not clearly communicated. Providing this

background information is particularly important for

medical, financial, or other topics for which expertise

is needed. This is a YMYL page.

Lowest: YMYL page with

inaccurate information –

We must evaluate this page from the point of view of

Chest pains and smoking

•

YMYL page with inaccurate potentially

(YMYL)

dangerous medical advice

a user visiting this page from a search engine, rather

than a participant. The question is poorly worded

and difficult to understand. The answers are poorly

worded and have incorrect and potentially

dangerous medical advice. The MC is low quality.

Lowest: YMYL page with

•

YMYL page with potentially damaging

financial advice

bad information – Paying

This page gives loan advice which can be potentially

•

Highly untrustworthy, unreliable,

off loans (YMYL)

unauthoritative, inaccurate or misleading

damaging, for example, instructing people not to pay

back their loans. The article has grammar and

spelling errors, and the page is highly untrustworthy.

This page is selling Nike Air Jordan shoes. When

you look at the “Contact Us” page, it does not give

Lowest: Potentially

•

Highly untrustworthy, unreliable,

the name of a company or a physical adress, which

unauthoritative, inaccurate or misleading

also cannot be found anywhere else on the website.

untrustworthy shopping

•

Completely inadequate or untrustworthy

This amount of contact information is not sufficient

page with insufficient

customer service information for a

enough for a shopping website.

contact info – (YMYL)

shopping website

In addition, the “Shipping and Returns” page has the

name of another company that seems to be

unrelated. There are also official looking logos at

the bottom of the homepage, including the Better

Business Bureau logo and Google Checkout logo,

that don’t appear to be affiliated with the website.