Live.com Sexually Explicit Search Terms

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Live.com Sexually Explicit Search Terms

That are completely irrelevant....what the heck?

epiphyte

8:25 am on Mar 16, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm about to launch a feature that publicly displays search terms that visitors have used to find our members' artwork. While looking over the results I noticed a pattern of completely irrelevant and sexually explicit search terms coming from live.com ie. [Edit note: Yes those WERE sexually explicit! If their too explicit for your logs, please think about whether they are also too explicit for a forum! / End Edit}

The terms are usually associated with the querystring variable... FORM=LVSP

I'm thinking that it might be prudent to remove live.com from the search engine list or filter out URLs that contain that variable...instead of having to shrug my shoulders at the inevitable questions.

Is anybody else noticing this?

[edited by: Receptional at 9:09 am (utc) on Mar. 16, 2007]
[edit reason] Explicits removed [/edit]

SteveWh

8:53 am on Mar 16, 2007 (gmt 0)

I had something similar in my logs today, too, except it wasn't the sex stuff. This is the first time it's happened.

The log entry looked like an ordinary referral from Live Search, but the search term was "BMW", a term that does not appear on that page, nor anywhere in my site, which has absolutely nothing to do with vehicles. I tested Live Search myself for that term, and my site does not turn up at all in the results.

My guess, until any other evidence turns up, is that this is referrer spam with a spoofed Referrer and User-Agent.

Make absolutely sure that your site is not in SERPs for the search terms you mentioned. When that happens, it can be an indication that your site has been hacked.

Re: your "search term" feature, be sure you always human-review the list before it's published, to remove any personally identifying data that searchers might not be real happy about seeing revealed.

[edited by: SteveWh at 8:57 am (utc) on Mar. 16, 2007]

thetrasher

2:42 pm on Mar 16, 2007 (gmt 0)

Let me guess: IP was 131.107.*.*? 131.107.0.95 and 131.107.0.96 seem to be MS proxy servers for weird tests.

See "Possible Bot or Spammer? Or is this Live bot?":
[webmasterworld.com...]

SteveWh

7:06 am on Mar 17, 2007 (gmt 0)

Thanks, thetrasher. I checked out the IP, and it's consistent with the explanation in the thread you linked to. Makes sense.