Notepad++ dev slams Google-clogging notepad.plus 'parasite'
- Reference: 1712694462
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/09/notepad_google_search_spam/
- Source link:
Programmer Don Ho [1]told users this month about a site with the domain notepad.plus, which he said showed up near the top of Google search results for his own open source app. The Register was able to confirm the presence of the notepad.plus in some search results when we looked earlier.
The scam site, which states at the bottom of every page that it is in no way official or affiliated with him or Notepad++, "harbors a hidden agenda," Ho said.
[2]
"It is riddled with malicious advertisements on every page," Ho argued. "These advertisements aim to deceive unsuspecting Notepad++ users into clicking on them, generating profits for the site owners." By that, he appears to mean someone is or was effectively making money off a site that does very little other than point out the existence of Notepad++ and the official notepad-plus-plus.org domain.
[3]
[4]
Ho urged Notepad++ users to report the website to Google as unscrupulous and, as of writing, it appears the page is no longer showing up when searching for Notepad++. Turning a spotlight on the dot-plus domain may have helped dump it from results, killing off whatever passing ad revenue it may have been scoring.
While it may no longer be occupying a top spot on Google search results, it's still worth looking at notepad.plus to see what the deal is.
[5]
A look around the site reveals a bare-bones domain with little in the way of content. There are a few blog posts and how-to pages that could've been written by an AI and not much else, but no ads, at least today. In addition to that, all the download links for Notepad++ on notepad.plus redirect to the [6]official website , making notepad.plus at best pointless.
[7]Veteran editors Notepad++ and Geany hit milestone versions
[8]Just take a look at the carnage on Notepad++'s GitHub: 'Free Uyghur' release sparks spam tsunami by pro-Chinese
[9]Not even poor Notepad is safe from Microsoft's AI obsession
[10]Google's AI-powered search results are loaded with spammy, scammy garbage
Notepad.plus was [11]registered in 2019 by an unknown party, and it began showing up on the web the following year. A crawl through [12]its pages captured by the Internet Archive reveals the website was largely unchanged in the few years since it appeared, until last year.
Archived copies of Notepad.plus from early 2023 show areas reserved for advertising that weren't there in earlier snapshots and aren't present on the site right now. As we said, adverts may have been placed there to make a fast buck on the back of the app's popularity.
As we've noted in the past, [13]SEO spam and questionable websites clogging up Google search results is a growing problem, and notepad.plus seems to be another example of this.
When in doubt, always download software directly from the source - in this case, the official Notepad++ website linked above.
[14]
We've reached out to Don Ho and the owners of notepad.plus for further comment, and we'll let you know if we hear from them. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/help-to-take-down-parasite-site/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZhW6hGNYAFNNiIQjz-G8@wAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZhW6hGNYAFNNiIQjz-G8@wAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZhW6hGNYAFNNiIQjz-G8@wAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZhW6hGNYAFNNiIQjz-G8@wAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/06/veteran_editors_notepad_and_geany/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2019/10/31/notepad_china_spam/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/11/microsoft_notepad_ai/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/25/googles_aipowered_search_results_are/
[11] https://who.is/whois/notepad.plus
[12] https://web.archive.org/web/20240415000000*/notepad.plus
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/google_search_results_spam/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZhW6hGNYAFNNiIQjz-G8@wAAAAI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Hurrah for Notepad++
I have lost count of how many years it has been since Notepad++ became one of the first programs that get installed on any Windows machine that I have to work with. It's just great.
This article reminded me of this and the fact that I don't think I've ever donated to Don for his wonderful editor. So I went over to https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ and donated some money to Don to say thanks.
Maybe you might also realise how long you have taken this great program for granted. If you do, be a good person and send Don some cash, he deserves it.
Re: Hurrah for Notepad++
I second that. Anytime I have to deal with a new Windows install (God how I am tired with that), Notepad++ is on my shortlist of things to install post-haste, in order to get the best tools at my fingertips.
I am glad to see that this leech has been dealt with.
Meh
I've used Notepad++, and it's OK.
I've used it simply because a colleague installed it on some Windows web servers and made it the default program for editing webby files.
Speaking personally, for that purpose it doesn't offer much more than the Microsoft-shipped Notepad program. Your mileage may vary. My experience certainly didn't induce me to install it on my workstation. My workstation runs Linux Mint. I don't lack choice of text editor.
On Windows the existence of Notepad, and even Wordpad, establishes a baseline that you really have to know about. A bit like vi on unix-y systems. You can't rely on Notepad++, or any other kind of enhanced text editor existing on the systems that you have to maintain, so learning how to use it seems a bit niche.
If you need a capable text editor on Windows, and one which is genuinely cross-platform, the pragmatic choice is, I respectfully suggest, VS Code. Yes, I feel a little bit sick.
-A.
Typical Google
Google actively promotes the crappiest, obviously worst results, to push more ads.
Switch to Kagi. Or at least DDG. DDG is now better than Google, not because DDG got much better but because Google has been getting amazingly worse.