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Since their 2011 appearance on the web, content farms have not yet received much explicit attention from the research community. The model of hiring inexpensive freelancers to produce content of marginal or questionable quality was first discussed as an alternative strategy to generating fake content
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Critics allege that content farms provide relatively low-quality content, and that they maximize profit by producing "just good enough" material rather than high-quality articles. Articles that are written by human authors (rather than by automated techniques) are often not written by a specialist in
213:
Information consumers end up with less relevant or valuable resources. Producers of relevant resources receive less cash as a reward (lower clickthrough rate) while producers of junk receive more cash. One way to describe this is pollution. Virtual junk pollutes the Web environment by adding noise.
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A social media content farm is a type of website or online platform that generates large volumes of content, often for the purpose of attracting traffic, generating ad revenue, or promoting products and services. These farms typically produce low-quality or formulaic content that is designed to go
164:
AI tools make it easy to fill up sites with massive amounts of content. When quality is not an issue, programs like ChatGPT can produce articles at an unprecedented rate. Google Ads provides 90 percent of the advertisements alongside this content, as large internet companies are willing to sustain
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Not only is the content produced by these systems "low-effort," but these avenues are also used to spread misinformation. For example, conspiracy theories regarding COVID-19 were peddled by content farms, encouraging engagement by feeding into the mass paranoia. The websites promoting these ideas
111:
Text articles in content farms have been found to contain identical passages across several media sources, leading to questions about the site's placing SEO goals over factual relevance. Proponents of the content farms claim that from a business perspective, traditional journalism is inefficient.
248:
significantly to "provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on." This was reported to be a reaction to content farms and an attempt to reduce their effectiveness in manipulating search
153:
Pay scales for content are low compared to traditional salaries received by writers. One company compensated writers at a rate of $ 3.50 per article. Such rates are substantially lower than a typical writer might receive working for mainstream online publications; however, some content farm
367:
While not explicitly motivated by content farms, there has been recent interest in the automatic categorisation of websites according to the quality of their content. A detailed study on the application of these methods to the identification of content farm pages is yet to be done.
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While some social media content farms can effectively draw attention and create a substantial following, they also contribute to the saturation of low-quality content on the internet, which can impact overall user experience and information reliability.
154:
contributors produce many articles per day and may earn enough for a living. It has been observed that content writers are mostly women with children, English majors, or journalism students seeking supplemental income while working at home.
214:
Everybody but the polluters pays a price for Web pollution: search engines work less well, users waste precious time and attention on junk sites, and honest publishers lose income. The polluter spoils the Web environment for everybody else.
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automatically; this was discussed together with an example of the infrastructure necessary to make content-farm-based sites profitable through online ads, along with techniques to detect social spam that promotes such content.
244:'s promotional videos for search published in the summer of 2010, the majority of the links available were reported to be produced at content farms. In late February 2011, Google announced it was adjusting
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User
Engagement: Content farms may focus on creating engaging or shareable content to increase social media shares, likes, and overall user interactions, even if the content lacks depth or original value.
142:), that "by next summer, Demand will be publishing one million items a month, the equivalent of four English-language Wikipedias a year". Another site, Associated Content, was purchased in May 2010 by
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Clickbait and
Sensationalism: Content often employs clickbait tactics—misleading or sensational headlines to entice users to click through to the website, regardless of the actual content quality.
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628:
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Low
Quality or Repetitive Content: The quality of the content may be poor, often relying on aggregation or repurposing existing information without providing new insights or value.
338:
SEO Optimization: Content is often optimized for search engines to achieve high rankings and drive traffic to the site, using keywords, clickbait headlines, and other strategies.
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Content farms often commission their writers' work based on analysis of search engine queries that proponents represent as "true market demand", a feature that traditional
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High Volume of
Content: They churn out a significant amount of articles, images, videos, or social media posts, often on trending topics or popular culture.
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920:, Forbes Magazine, 5 Oct. 2023, www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/05/16/the-danger-of-ai-content-farms/?sh=82f8e3b4fcab. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
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the subjects reported. Some authors working for sites identified as content farms have admitted knowing little about the fields on which they report.
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and lower quality results of the search. The reduced quality and rapid creation of articles on such sites has drawn comparisons to the
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Monetization Focus: The primary goal is usually to monetize the content through advertising, affiliate marketing, or sponsored posts.
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viral or engage users quickly, often prioritizing quantity over quality. Key characteristics of social media content farms include:
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With a rise in these AI tools, AI-scribed content farms are on a rise which spews robot written content to generate ad money
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often also shroud the identities of those making editing decisions, making it even more difficult to identify an agenda.
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Some sites labeled as content farms may contain many articles and have been valued in the millions of dollars. In 2009,
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49:. The reason given is: Reliable sources regarding the current situation of content farms are extremely rare.
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Proceedings of the 5th
International Workshop on Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web (AIRWeb '09)
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740:, Recurrent Ventures Inc, 2 July 2023, futurism.com/content-farms-ai. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
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232:, which takes an unfair share of available advertising spending away from legitimate publishers.
590:"The Answer Factory: Demand Media and the Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell Media Model"
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Content farms are also criticised for being the source of fake ad impressions, a form of
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767:"TikTok bad actors are using AI to churn out political misinformation, new report shows"
414:, a change to Google's search algorithm that is intended to filter out low-quality sites
51:
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
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752:"Misinformation tracker warns 'new generation' of AI-scribed content farms on the rise"
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has reported that his search engine makes efforts to block content from content farms.
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Search engines see content farms as a problem, as they tend to bring the user to less
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Dupre, Maggie
Harrison. “People Are Spinning Up Low-Effort Content Farms Using AI.”
705:"A.I.-Generated Content Discovered on News Sites, Content Farms and Product Reviews"
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videos featuring famous cartoon/videogame characters that target young children
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973:"Google's New Video Ad Highlights How Content Farms Rule At The Search Game"
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Markines, Benjamin; Cattuto, Ciro; Menczer, Filippo, "Social Spam
Detection"
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as part of a growing trend of AI-generated content farming on the platform.
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621:"Yahoo Harvests "Content Farm" Associated Content for $ 90 Million, Report"
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960:(Report). Centre for International Governance Innovation. pp. 16–17.
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674:"What It's Like To Write For Demand Media: Low Pay But Lots of Freedom"
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Content Farms and the
Limitations of Copyright for Independent Media
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creators or uses automated tools to generate a large amount of web
559:"Content Farms: What Are They -- And Why Won't They Just Go Away?"
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820:"I'm still waiting to make a bushel from my 'content farm' work"
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for $ 90 million. However, this new website, which was renamed
143:
847:"Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farm"
252:
Gabriel
Weinberg, creator of privacy-focused search engine
139:
854:
1028:"Google makes major change in search ranking algorithms"
793:"USA Today turns to the content farm as the ship sinks"
503:
1059:"The Search Engine Backlash Against 'Content Mills'"
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130:magazine wrote that, according to founder and CEO
916:Marr, Bernard. “The Danger of Ai Content Farms.”
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29:Web site with a high volume of low-cost content
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680:. December 17, 2009. p. 2. Archived from
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1114:"Joint WICOW/AIRWeb Workshop on Web Quality"
996:"Finding more high-quality sites in search"
932:"How to Build a Content Farm in 20 Minutes"
764:
557:Driscoll Miller, Janet (February 1, 2011).
298:. Unsourced material may be challenged and
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395:, a phenomenon referring to inappropriate
235:
84:which is specifically designed to satisfy
318:Learn how and when to remove this message
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872:MacManus, Richard (December 15, 2009).
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1039:from the original on February 27, 2011
1006:from the original on February 26, 2011
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817:
631:from the original on February 2, 2023.
157:Since the emergence and popularity of
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1024:
874:"How Google Can Combat Content Farms"
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654:from the original on October 12, 2014
175:accounts were found to be generating
104:, as first exposed in the context of
1025:Guynn, Jessica (February 26, 2011).
983:from the original on April 13, 2021.
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765:DiBenedetto, Chase (July 11, 2024).
703:Thompson, Stuart A. (May 19, 2023).
587:
296:adding citations to reliable sources
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930:Buzz, Carles (September 25, 2015).
504:Markines, Benjamin; Cattuto, Ciro;
24:
119:
96:). Their main goal is to generate
25:
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791:Patricio Robles (April 9, 2010).
588:Roth, Daniel (October 19, 2009).
971:Wauters, Robin (July 23, 2010).
472:Dorian Benkoil (July 26, 2010).
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900:The End Of Hand Crafted Content
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750:Quach, Katyanna (May 2, 2023).
743:
474:"Don't Blame the Content Farms"
845:Hiar, Corbin (July 21, 2010).
818:Reinan, John (July 19, 2010).
795:. Econsultancy. Archived from
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642:Rossiter, Jay (July 2, 2014).
635:
619:Plesser, Andy (May 18, 2010).
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165:this sort of business model.
994:Singhal, Amit; Cutts, Matt.
956:Radsch, Courtney C. (2023).
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565:. MediaPost. Archived from
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209:industry and to pollution:
10:
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1414:Search engine optimization
1244:Online identity management
1163:Search engine optimization
1084:"Discovery Challenge 2010"
822:. MinnPost. Archived from
438:Search engine optimization
260:Social media content farms
94:search engine optimization
76:is a company that employs
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88:for maximal retrieval by
45:This article needs to be
183:technology, regarded by
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527:10.1145/1531914.1531924
521:, ACM, pp. 41–48,
510:"Social Spam Detection"
236:Search engine responses
1120:. 2011. Archived from
1090:. 2010. Archived from
907:vom 13. Dezember 2009.
644:"Furthering Our Focus"
448:User-generated content
222:
171:In 2024, a network of
1124:on February 14, 2020.
1118:dl.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp
1063:MIT Technology Review
476:. PBS. Archived from
211:
159:large language models
1000:Official Google Blog
684:on February 19, 2011
600:on February 23, 2011
423:Predatory publishing
292:improve this section
1373:Human search engine
1213:Display advertising
1170:Exclusion standards
428:Research paper mill
116:purportedly lacks.
100:through attracting
98:advertising revenue
1268:Search engine spam
1203:Online advertising
861:on March 30, 2017.
709:The New York Times
132:Richard Rosenblatt
1409:Online publishing
1404:Digital marketing
1391:
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1033:Los Angeles Times
895:Michael Arrington
884:on July 28, 2010.
799:on April 13, 2010
536:978-1-60558-438-6
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246:search algorithms
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1368:Geotargeting
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1280:Web scraping
1182:Meta element
1122:the original
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1002:. Blogspot.
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482:. Retrieved
478:the original
433:Scraper site
412:Google Panda
366:
362:
353:
329:
314:
305:
290:Please help
278:
251:
239:
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223:
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184:
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156:
152:
136:Demand Media
125:
123:
110:
74:content mill
73:
70:content farm
69:
67:
54:
46:
26:
1259:Google bomb
941:February 8,
722:February 8,
688:November 4,
308:August 2024
106:social spam
1398:Categories
1378:Stop words
1347:Matt Cutts
1275:Spamdexing
977:TechCrunch
905:TechCrunch
851:MediaShift
776:August 18,
658:October 7,
650:. Tumblr.
454:References
443:Spamdexing
405:Essay mill
383:Click farm
378:Churnalism
254:DuckDuckGo
240:In one of
193:Criticisms
114:journalism
102:page views
86:algorithms
1419:Deception
1290:Link farm
1098:April 22,
717:0362-4331
418:Link farm
388:Clickbait
279:does not
207:fast food
186:NewsGuard
78:freelance
1311:Backlink
1187:nofollow
1037:Archived
1004:Archived
981:Archived
830:July 26,
803:July 26,
771:Mashable
738:Futurism
652:Archived
629:Archived
508:(2009),
484:July 26,
393:Elsagate
372:See also
359:Research
230:ad fraud
217:—
203:relevant
1304:Linking
625:Beet.TV
545:6078349
397:YouTube
300:removed
285:sources
82:content
47:updated
1335:People
918:Forbes
903:. In:
715:
543:
533:
242:Google
173:TikTok
144:Yahoo!
1361:Other
648:Yahoo
594:Wired
541:S2CID
513:(PDF)
127:Wired
1100:2011
1070:2023
1045:2011
1012:2011
943:2024
936:Vice
832:2010
805:2010
778:2024
724:2024
713:ISSN
690:2010
660:2014
606:2011
575:2014
531:ISBN
486:2010
283:any
281:cite
140:eHow
855:PBS
523:doi
294:by
134:of
72:or
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