Creepy crawlers
Looks like starting your own feed crawler bot is becoming quite a fad. After my previous adventures with Linkie Winkie, I figured all would be back to normal (although the LW crawler is still digging through my feed each day).
But it would seem that someone else has had a similar idea, or at least what appears to be a similar idea. In my feed stats today is a crawler that leaves the following as its identifier:
Confused? http://blogs.miffo.org 9NQ6WMT8BC
Confused would be about right. That URL points to an even more stripped-down page than Linkie Winkie, with another long code string and a link to this anonymous two-post blog.
Well, to reuse a common internet acronym, WTF? Is this another SEO-boffin joke/bet/meme? Is it some random coder/start-up/nutcase trying to freak/help people out? Or has the spirit of Philip K. Dick infested a webserver somewhere and decided to unleash his paranoid vision on the electronic world?
Phacked if I know. But on the off-chance that it’s another reciprocal-link traffic generator, I have linked to it and posted the code-string here – because basically I’m a traffic-whore. A Google search reveals Miffo is the title of some Swedish arthouse film. The online UrbanDictionary describes ‘miffo’ as a slang term meaning ‘freak, oddity, idiot’. So maybe it’s just a ploy to make people look foolish…which yours truly has obviously just gone and done. Selah.
However, a little deeper in the Google rankings is www.miffo.org, which bears a simple page that says ‘Miffos so far:’ and a numerical count. The two are likely to be connected, methinks. We shall see.
Or maybe we won’t. The intarwebs just get weirder every time I come home from work.
July 15th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
[...] Still curious about WTF Linkie Winkie is all about, I found this site at the top of Technorati’s list on the subject. The author, “The Armchair Anarchist“, took me in with his style and apparent intelligence. I had to explore his posts a little further. This one got me to click the little orange button. [...]
July 18th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Any more luck on info about Miffo? Doesn’t seem that very many people are getting crawled by this thing. Reason I say this is earlier today I look at the the miffo.org website earlier today and there were 851 hits. Then, maybe 2 hours after that I was hit by miffo on my blog, and the number went up to 852. I assume it was because of me.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:00 am
[...] The page it leads to is even more mysterious and confusing. I googled the link and found this post by a guy who also got hit and did a little more digging than I did. [...]
July 19th, 2006 at 12:13 am
Sorry Mr. Z, I have no further knowledge to impart. It’s probably some smartass code geek having a laugh at our expense. If I do find out more, I will let you know – please return the favour if the wisdom comes to you first. Cheers, man.
July 19th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Well, its a code geek for sure. The guy works for Sony Ericcson. He did work on the k800 cell phone, which is the first phone to feature Google blog tools in an actual mobile device. This being said, its interesting that he would take the time to develop a hoax. But, in all possibility it could be. He has a personal website as well. http://www.karlsoderstrom.com/
Your blog is one of the few that comes up when a search is done on it. If this crawler continues to crawl, it may work in your favor if your looking for some extra traffic!