Self-Replicating Websites
The Internet has brought a lot of different things to the world. It has become an incredibly useful way to search for information and to disseminate information. Even though the Internet has had this profound effect on the way that people search for information, it has also come with a few ideas that make some people frown. One of the many ideas that have come to the fore is self-replicating websites. While sounding simple and easy enough, there are many people who frown upon the practice that is being used by many people all over the Internet. While generally not malignant, there are some who believe them to be a sinister problem for the web.
Self-replicating websites are what their name says they are. They are fully generated websites with a variety of information on them that can replicate. The replicate is an exact copy of the original website except for a few differences that are nearly unnoticeable. They are usually created using a simple script that creates the website from a template. The script changes one or two things like the e-mail address, various numbers, or some other characteristic so that the website is not identical to the original.
They are often used by multi level marketing (MLM) companies to offer their affiliates an easy to use and accessible website. In this incarnation they are benign things that make life easier for the affiliates and help the MLM companies to increase their presence on the Internet. The script file often changes the e-mail address to that of the affiliate as well as the member number to correspond to the affiliate member. The critics of self-replicating websites have no problem with this application but rather with those people that use them to try and trick search engines.
By replicating their website numerous times and reposting them over and over again, people have been trying to trick search engines into listing their site higher in the rankings. Originally people actively made copies of the original website and posted the replicates on the web, but now they are just using programs to do it for them. Those opposed to this practice say that this bogs down the Internet, reduces the efficiency of otherwise brilliant search engines, and hampers the flow of information on the Internet.
Even though the practice continues, the search engines have come up with ways to combat self-replicating websites. Their spider programs that scour the Internet for websites to place in their database are programmed to ignore sites that are obvious replicates of one that is already in the database. They also have various other methods to ensure that replicated websites are not added to the search database. This does mean that those affiliate of MLM companies are also getting the blunt end of the stick, however, even though their replicated websites are benign in nature. The controversy continues. The battle over self-replicating websites is far from over but already there are causalities.
