Fake aggregator web sites

Just a note about fake aggregator websites. On my other active blog, Walking Arizona, I receive a comment from time to time congratulating me on a really good post and telling me the post has been included in a "Best Blogs of Mesa" website. Its nice to feel wanted, but the site is bogus. It is an aggregator meaning that it automatically collects links to websites and republishes them. In addition to violating copyright laws, these sites are like parasites eating away at legitimate sites and cannibalizing content. There is a legitimate aggregator function, like Google Reader, where the users add sites they wish to review with new content. But these illegitimate sites have no original information at all, they are mechanical listings of other sites with ads, hoping to make some advertising money from accumulated links.

How do you tell if you have reached such a site? Usually, the site comes up on a specific search but the search term is no where to be found on the site. The site will have no content but will look like a listing of other websites. If you reach such a site, just close the browser window and go back to your search list. Do not click on anything, it only encourages the practice.