In the press, Leo Gomes describes his despair in doing spring chores around the home and yard. He'd planned to use the web both to research roof repair, etc., and to find good local contractors.

But no matter how he refined his web-search, any useful results were buried in a mass of links to not-on point pages that were deliberately designed to pop up on your search. Gomes calls those pages "spam" or "Web spam", adding, "While mostly associated with email, 'spam' is also used to describe underiable search results."

Has anyone else heard of this usage of the word spam?

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[In another post, I'll note how what Gomes encountered found is unlike "the search spam of the early Internet, where you would searchg for 'Disney' and instead get a sex page."]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: shufitz,

Chaff. I think that's the right term for the little strips of aluminium that nuclear-equipped aircraft spew out as they approach their target to confuse radar. So web chaff is the rubbish that you don't want to see but can't work out how to turn off seeing.

Having lived on a farm, I remember chaff as the waste that is removed from grains. Yes, aput is right. Chaff is a great word for it!

This practice is often known as spamdexing, and I agree that it can be a real nuisance.

"Spam" on its own is used mainly for unwanted e-mails, but it forms the root of various coinages to describe sharp practices employed on the Web.

My Norton anti-virus software stops all pop-ups and banners very effectively.

I discovered this when a salesman called me and asked me to look at a site which would prove to me how good it was to have a special banner appear, whenever a person put in search terms that were appropriate to my business. So I went to the page and he said, "Now, see how impressive the banner is". And I said, "What banner?" He didn't believe I couldn't see it and went off the see his boss. When he came back he asked whether I had the latest version of Norton and, when I confirmed that I had, he said, "OK, switch it off and the banner will appear"! Well, I was certainly going to do that, I don't think.

So, if you want to rid yourself of this kind of rubbish, get an up to date copy of Norton. Also install Adaware which will clear out all the spyware that gets onto your system and help spammer target you.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Richard English,