What do you get when you connect a country, with one billion people, with lots of free time, to the internet? Human generated spam.

If you have ever visited any major Indian web publisher, chances are you have run into it already. Sify, MSN India, Rediff, IndiaTimes, you name it. Any exposed comment form, potentially becomes a candidate for parasitic unsolicited advertisement.

It's a sure bet in Vegas that any visitor to one of these Indian web portals will be greeted to at-least one such comment:

“Dear Friends, Are you interested to make Rs.20,000 to Rs.1,20,000 A Day ? This is not a get rich quick scheme. This is a legal opportunity to make good money."

Fig: Human Generated Spam.

I do not wish to imply that this enthusiasm towards making easy money is limited to the Indian subcontinent alone. But the ratio of parasitic advertisement to genuine user feedback is alarmingly high in web sites targeted at audiences in India and her neighbors.

Humans, with lots of free-time, access to the internet and a desire to make easy money, become highly efficient spambots. Bots, capable of defeating most anti-spam measures with biological precision and flooding sites with 'piggy-back' advertisements and referral links, in hope of improving their bank balance.

What's The Harm?

The internet by nature depends and thrives on users and their generated content. If the very content that is to drive these sites turns out to be unsolicited advertorials, the very foundation is shaken. That coupled with the fact that these spam comments considerably subtract from user experience. They serve as a major annoyance to genuine traffic, driving it away faster than you can say Web 2.0. No genuine users, no good content, no advertisement, no dough. It a simple equation really.

Advertisers pay for advertisement on sites because they want to get a message to the site's traffic, who they view as potential customers. Now, if a large percentage of traffic comprises of 'micro-advertisers' themselves, who do not really form 'customer candidates', advertisers would definitely not like to pay for it. Gradually, but surely, advertisers are going to start recognize this 'undesired' traffic factor in Indian sites, if they already haven't, They would reluctant towards advertising on India-centric sites at the same rates they pay internationally.

Thus, while the regular Indian 'comment-to-comment salesman' may seem harmless, comic, and a integral part of the Indian way of life, they damage the prospect of Indian internet and new age businesses.

And lastly it leaves us to wonder, does anyone ever make any money this way?