Cynical amusement strikes again

[julesjones]

I've been ego-surfing, now that I have net access again. Look very carefully at

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:6rzQuT8B0hcJ:books.lowcost.us.com/item_42303030435252313643/Buildup_Mindscan.php

Does that review look as if it has been auto-generated from a template? Yes, that's what I thought even before I looked at the side bar and saw the same template on some of the other items. That was in the Google cache. Here's what the real time page looks like:

http://books.lowcost.us.com/item_42303030435252313643/Buildup_Mindscan.php

And what *I* saw when I looked at it was something making it *really* obvious it was auto-generated from a template, though it may have stopped barfing by the time others check. :-)

Comments

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Why do they bother?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me to ego google now and then. It seems that Fantasy Magazine has put me in the table of contents for next issue! Two credits so fat this year, which is not nothing.

[julesjones]

Excellent. :-)

[julesjones]

Presumably for the same reason that spammers do - the world has an endless supply of suckers, and it only takes one of them to bite to make a profit...

People are more likely to buy something if it has a good review. So if the product doesn't already have one when you scrape it off Amazon, just make one up, idealy incorporating something saying how *cheap* it is at this site.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Heavens! They could do with adding a few more random phrases to their selection. It is rather obvious, isn't it.

[julesjones]

I thought it would give some amusement to my flist. :-)