[blowski]

> There's a tonne of low hanging fruit google completely ignores, for example any page with an amazon referral link is almost certainly spam.

This is the root of the problem. If Google targets the low-hanging fruit, the spammers will very quickly find a workaround. Google is trying - and failing - to use more sophisticated signals.

Spam is a virus. Google beneffited from the network effect, eradicating all opposition. But, like a European medieval monarch, it now has a poor immune system because of its lack of genetic diversity. The many, many SEO spammers are constantly experimenting, and they only have to find one flaw in Google's algorithm for it to win and spread quickly.

Google's monoculture cannot save us, however hard they try.

[marcosdumay]

If you target the spam business model, it won't route around it.

But yeah, a healthy set of search engines will get us better results.