This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz by Brendan Tompkins. Original Post: The "Cats In Sinks" Phenomenon Feed Title: Brendan Tompkins Feed URL: /error.htm?aspxerrorpath=/blogs/brendan.tompkins/Rss.aspx Feed Description: Blog First. Ask Questions Later. Latest .NET Buzz Posts Latest .NET Buzz Posts by Brendan Tompkins Latest Posts From Brendan Tompkins

Sometimes an irrelevant site gets listed at the top of a Google search, due not to the page's relevance, but because Google's page rank algorithm bases it's page relevance partly on inbound links. Take for example a simple Google search for "sinks."  The number 1 result?  Cats in Sinks.  A funny site, but it's completely irrelevant to the topic of sinks in general.  Why is it listed first?  Because everyone on the planet with a cat and a blog has linked to them.  As of this post, I’m one of these people.

It's not a good thing.

You ever wonder how blog spam works? Spammer's attacking blogs don't ever hope you'll actually click on a link for cheap Ambien or Viagra, when they post a spam comment. It's actually referred to as spamdexing. They're hoping that Google will be fooled into giving their site a higher page rank, because your site (which already has a good page rank) is linking to them. 

Hopefully someday, this will be a thing of the past.  Those rocket scientists over at Google will no doubt figure it out.  Until that day, I thought it needed a name.  I'm hereby declaring it the "Cats in Sinks" Phenomenon.

-Brendan