YouTube serving up 1 billion videos daily, but how many are spam?
While YouTube is enjoying the success of averaging 1 billion videos viewed per day, spammers appear set to start invading the service in earnest.
YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley took to the YouTube blog today to announce that the popular video sharing site is now serving an average of 1 billion videos per day. Perhaps it is only coincidence this is announced on the third anniversary of search engine giant Google purchasing the company, but somehow we’re guessing that was planned.
However, not all news is good news today for the video site as Kaspersky, a leading anti-virus company, is reporting that spammers may finally be getting serious about loading the site down with their marketing ploys. Kaspersky Lab’s Content Filtering Research group is reporting that a mass mailing of spam has been found that contained a link to a YouTube video promoting Russian real estate. While there were several variations of the email itself, all of them had a link to the same video clip. This is the first time any one has seen this happen, but if it is even mildly successful, there will <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} h4 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:4; mso-list:l0 level4 lfo1; font-size:14.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”;} h5 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:5; mso-list:l0 level5 lfo1; font-size:13.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; font-style:italic;} h6 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:6; mso-list:l0 level6 lfo1; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”;} p.MsoHeading7, li.MsoHeading7, div.MsoHeading7 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:7; mso-list:l0 level7 lfo1; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} p.MsoHeading8, li.MsoHeading8, div.MsoHeading8 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:8; mso-list:l0 level8 lfo1; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; font-style:italic;} p.MsoHeading9, li.MsoHeading9, div.MsoHeading9 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:12.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:3.0pt; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-outline-level:9; mso-list:l0 level9 lfo1; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:1010372466; mso-list-template-ids:-1174775044;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-reset-level:level1; mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} @list l0:level2 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:1.0in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} @list l0:level3 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:117.35pt; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-8.65pt; font-family:Symbol; color:windowtext;} @list l0:level4 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-style-link:”Heading 4″; mso-level-suffix:none; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in; font-family:Symbol;} @list l0:level5 {mso-level-number-format:none; mso-level-style-link:”Heading 5″; mso-level-suffix:none; mso-level-text:”"; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in;} @list l0:level6 {mso-level-number-format:none; mso-level-style-link:”Heading 6″; mso-level-suffix:none; mso-level-text:”"; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in;} @list l0:level7 {mso-level-number-format:none; mso-level-style-link:”Heading 7″; mso-level-suffix:none; mso-level-text:”"; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in;} @list l0:level8 {mso-level-number-format:none; mso-level-style-link:”Heading 8″; mso-level-suffix:none; mso-level-text:”"; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in;} @list l0:level9 {mso-level-number-format:none; mso-level-style-link:”Heading 9″; mso-level-suffix:none; mso-level-text:”"; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:0in; text-indent:0in;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} –> undoubtedly be more occurrences.
“Naturally, this type of advertising is more interesting and gets more hits,” says Darya Gudkova, Head of Content Analysis & Research at Kaspersky Lab. “Two years ago spammers used the YouTube name and the promise of interesting videos to lure users to advertising sites. Now the links really do lead to this popular video hosting site which is being used to store unsolicited advertising content.”
The YouTube community is well-known for being self-policing, but depending on how long it takes for a video to be taken down, it could still result in thousands of views for the spammer. Considering the resource is free, this is sure to not be the only time we see this happen, the only truly surprising thing is that it took the spammers this long to give it a try!
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October 9th, 2009
I wonder how long it will be before the FTC regulates this!