Bookmark Collector

This will be a different type of post, but I feel compelled to write about this as a caution to others who look for bookmark related web-sites.

I have a Google search set up for notices about bookmarks in the news or mentioned in blogs. I probably get a hit once every other day or so (actually, I get 15 to 20 hits a day, but they are mainly about bookmarking websites - the sort of action you can take with your browser or with a social bookmarking site). When I get a hit on a physical bookmark, I review it for a possible mention here.

So, I find it particularly odd when I get 3 hits in one day pointing to 3 different blogs that all happen to write a post about collecting bookmarks. All are posts which introduce the hobby of bookmark collecting. All are clearly written by people who are not native English speakers. Each uses different text, although the pacing is similar in two of them. All have “About Me” profiles that are empty (just their first name). They all have “click through” ads. Their posting histories are spotty.

Clearly, they are some sort of affiliate marketing scheme. Why bookmark collecting was chosen as a target, I’m not sure. But, I felt the need to put a warning out there. As web-scams go, this is pretty benign (and some wouldn’t consider it a scam), but I’m not going to link to the sites because I don’t want to increase their search engine rankings.

I just wanted to put the warning out there.