Gary Lineker isn't leaving comments here
I got very excited the other day when Greg The Bunny left a comment on currybetdotnet, and then again, briefly, when I thought that Gary Lineker had.
For a split-second from the summary, I though he had left a comment trying to put his side of the Kewell vs Lineker dispute by linking to his official site.
(If you'll remember, Harry Kewell sued Gary Lineker for defamation, which they settled out of court. At the time it caused me, not necessarily a bitter Leeds United fan, to wonder aloud whether football fans, not necessarily from Liverpool, could sue stars, not necessarily from Australia, who didn't perform to the standard of their expectations under the Trades Descriptions Act)
Sadly it turned out that the Gary Lineker commenting on my blog was just a spammer masquerading as the top scorer from the 1986 World Cup Finals.
The site they linked to was simply a one page made-for-AdSense Google honeypot, with even the navigation at the top of the page made out of Google adverts. A quick Google search for the text soon turned up that even the meagre amount of actual content on the page is ripped off from Gary's biog on a legitimate site selling his after-dinner speaking services.
I would have thought a decent reputation management lawyer would have a good chance of wresting the garylineker.co.uk domain name from the spammer, and putting it to better use.
And now that I come to think about it, whilst I've got no doubt about the veracity of Greg The Bunny's contribution, I'm not sure that the Simon Le Bon who once left a comment on here agreeing with me when I was slagging off Sony's DRM solutions was legit either...
Posted by Martin Belam, August 1, 2007
Read more posts on currybetdotnet about: Football, Google, Web
The views expressed on currybetdotnet are my own, and do not reflect the views of my current or former employers.
Search
Download e-books
About Martin Belam
I'm a London-based internet consultant and writer, with 8 years experience in product management, information architecture, and user experience design for global brands like Sony, Vodafone, The Guardian and the BBC. I specialise in advising on search, widgets, RSS, online news publishing and bulk email delivery.
Martin Belam CV
email: martin.belam@currybet.net
tel: +44 (0) 7801 828718
twitter: currybet
About Martin Belam and this site
Recent posts
- Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 11
- Another threat to local newspapers - daily BBC horoscopes by email!
- FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying website review - Scotland
- Tom Dunmore of Stuff says print magazines have a future..."for the moment"
- Taking the 'Ooh' out of Google: Getting site search right - Part 10
Recent links
Recent comments
Popular posts
- Protecting the identity of Baby P's killers: The courts vs the people vs the Internet
- Day #2 at Guardian Hack Day
- The BBC News linking policy is simply clumsy, not 'greedy'
- BBC fails the online Brand damage limitation test
- "The Former Scottish Constituency of Northumbria"
- Social media and www.bbc.co.uk
- Take-away facts and quotes from the 2008 Euro IA Summit in Amsterdam - Part 1
- Measuring UK newspaper success with social media
Popular categories
BBC, Doctor Who, Ghost Walks, Media, Music, Newspapers, Search, Social media, Web
Contact: martin dot belam at currybet dot net
©2008 Martin Belam where appropriate. Powered by Movable Type. Hosted by Bytemark.
Manufactured in Great Britain.
1 comment so far
It's worse than that. I'm not even Ian