Microsoft Disables Fake Referral "Feature" Temporarily

Apr 29, 2009 - 8:17 am 1 by
Filed Under Bing Search

The ongoing saga of Live Search's fake referral data to possibly conduct cloaking experiments has been shut down temporarily.

The official Microsoft representative has told us in a WebmasterWorld thread that it has been shut down. He said:

I just spoke with the team. They said they are working on a fix for this, but the feature causing the problem is turned off currently, so you shouldn't be seeing any fake referrals from us.

Exactly what type of "feature" is causing this to be a problem is not clear. In the past, we know Microsoft had a bot that tested for detecting cloaking. But this time, the Microsoft representative did not mention cloaking. Is this some new type of feature or just issues with the old cloaking detection algorithm?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: May 8, 2025

May 8, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google Search Ranking Volatility Spiked Thursday - May 8th

May 8, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Launches New Charts: Bar, Column and Time-Series

May 8, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Tests Read Reviews Button & Appointment Tags On Local Listings

May 8, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Apple Says Google Searches Down On Safari & Google Says Searches Are Up

May 8, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Tests Alignment Changes To Search Result Snippets

May 8, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Updates AdSense Program Policies Again: Guidelines Broaden