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About LinkBacksNoticed some scaled content from AI service providers has been removed from multiple US media and regional TV/news sites. Most were sports-related game previews with lines, odds, summary stats, and links to various sports betting sites.
Though the sites are still in the SERPs, the pages are all 404. Perhaps it's coincidence, or perhaps the publishers are getting ahead of any potential "scaled content" and "site reputation abuse" penalties that could result?
Seems like parasite AI content would be an obvious target, especially if it's appearing across hundreds of major media sites.
Example SERP: https://www.google.com/search?q=clev...&ie=UTF-8#ip=1
Example URLs (ranked 8-10+):
hxxps://www.fox19[dot]com/sports/betting/2024/03/25/cleveland-state-high-point-college-basketball-picks-predictions/
hxxps://www.wsaw[dot]com/sports/betting/2024/02/28/green-bay-vs-cleveland-state-college-basketball-betting-trends-stats/
hxxps://www.kktv[dot]com/sports/betting/2024/03/24/northern-colorado-cleveland-state-college-basketball-picks-predictions/
hxxps://www.wvlt[dot]tv/sports/betting/2024/03/11/oakland-cleveland-state-college-basketball-sportsbook-promo-codes-odds-spread-over-under-horizon-league-tournament/
hxxps://www.kbtx[dot]com/sports/betting/2024/03/05/cleveland-state-iupui-college-basketball-sportsbook-promo-codes-odds-spread-over-under-horizon-league-tournament/
For those outside the USA: The major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) operate both nationally and in regional and state markets. For example, the New York City local ABC station delivers the news between 5 - 6:30pm. Then, the National ABC news comes on at 6:30 (seen across the country).
All of the local stations have news websites for written articles, videos, and supplementary content. It looks like they were hosting sports betting articles as a way to make money at least until recently.
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16 April 2024, 3:13 pm #1
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Some AI "scaled content" Removed from US Media Sites
Last edited by bpmee; 16 April 2024 at 3:20 pm.
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16 April 2024, 3:23 pm #2
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Follow-up: Looks like Fox19[dot].com cleaned out all the AI stuff, and likely the other sites did the same.
Try a search for: site:fox19.com "data skrive"
It looks like "Data Skrive" was part of the byline in all the articles. They 86ed hundreds of these articles. I hope Google still dings them anyway, though they did make an effort to comply in time.
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16 April 2024, 3:58 pm #3
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In the case of Fox, and sites and (news affiliate) sites they may have a financial interest in, I wonder if it has anything to do with their future moves with Disney and ESPN..
https://www.active-income.com/forum/disney-ce...ng-266981.html
This is pure speculation, and it could be that bpmee is correct, or it could be some combination of both?
Time will tell, and if other news aggregators and sites start following suit it could be a portion of cleaning some things up a bit?
Rick
Universal4
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bpmee (16 April 2024)
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16 April 2024, 4:22 pm #4
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Excellent point re: FOX. But the others I'm not so sure about
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universal4 (16 April 2024)
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16 April 2024, 4:38 pm #5
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Ok, just checked a CBS affiliate from the list: site:kktv.com "data skrive"
Looks like they had to axe 10,000+ pages!
I can only imagine the aggregate traffic this network generated. Even if each article was worth 7-8 clicks total, you have to wonder how many NRCs and FTDs came in each week.
But they were really abusing Google doing this. 10,000 articles x say 100 sites = 1 million pages of crap that Google tolerated for years. Glad to see it exiting stage left.
Of course, that's not an immediate win for the rest of us, as there are other sites to fill the gap I'm sure.Last edited by bpmee; 16 April 2024 at 4:44 pm.
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universal4 (16 April 2024)
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17 April 2024, 6:39 pm #6
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Another follow-up: I'm seeing more of this publisher's content removed/404 from other sites.
Though it is likely related to the update, it's possible something else is afoot. Wondering if anyone has any knowledge about this company or any other AI content suppliers?
At this point, hundreds of thousands, if not 1M+ pages have been vaporized (doing rough math given the number of articles on each site * number of regional US news sites).
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17 April 2024, 7:30 pm #7
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Google is ranking 404 pages. Literally. You can't make this up.
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18 April 2024, 9:03 am #8
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Yes sadly
-- on authority alone those 404s are better than everyone's best effort (except the mega-affiliate portals).
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1 May 2024, 2:14 am #9
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I still can see tons of AI generated pages in top results for casino keywords. This update did not address AI generated content, at least directly.
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