As an aside, I don't think one has to be a conspiracy theorist for things to be true. :-)

This overhaul of their comment system was long awaited – but also, possibly, opens Blogger blogs to the scourge of comment spam.

Curiously though, Blogger failed to rollout an implementation of the nofollow attribute which Google themselves proposed recently to help combat comment spam.

If I was a conspiracy theorist…

Okay. Maybe it'll work: maybe it'll stop comment spammers dead in their tracks. Maybe they'll take their spambot software and go home.

Or maybe it'll be as effective as installing anti-spam software on your computer: it doesn't stop the spam attempts; it just changes your method of dealing with it.

Question: if comment and trackback spam did not exist, would these folks still recommend using the nofollow attribute?

It's a curious question, but one with a purpose: while the majority of bloggers may not be particularly interested in promoting their blogs (fair enough), I wonder how many are familiar with Google's new domain ranking delay or the oft-debated "sandbox" effect whereby it appears that new websites are not given credit for their links for months on end (6-8 months and counting, for some). The point: links are one of the major factors in getting websites well-ranked and, it appears, one of the only methods most bloggers know about.

S-o-o-o … if bloggers employ the nofollow attribute, then blogs will have less ability to rank well in search engines. Very especially new blogs. The heavy-duty linking blog networks of today have less ability to make each other visible in search engines. And maybe that is the point.

We are in a new era of Search Engine Wars. Heck, they're trying to out-do each other at every turn. Have you ever seen uber-competitors Google, Yahoo and MSN.com agree to anything quite so breathlessly quickly?

For all I know, bloggers who do want to promote their sites will spend less time commenting on other blogs, and will use that time more productively and profitably by doing what the rest of us have done for years: promoting the usual way. Or — gasp! — paying for rankings. When you can't get the job done, (Google) Adwords and (Yahoo's) Overture and paid advertisements are your friend.

No, I'm not a spammer, and have zero good words for them. As some of them know.

I'm just a marketer and a consummate curious person. I tend to look at actions and trends. Follow the logic. Follow the money trail, and all that.

(P.S. Please don't mention meta tags; they haven't carried much weight in any major search engine in years.)

Bit of heated discussion in the WordPress forums' nofollow support added? thread. Apparently my choice of words wasn't appreciated. Or at least not by some. Or at least not by one.

But the real interesting point is that it appears that WPforums now has a troll posting as "Anonymous". Personally, I'm torn:

- Is this an angry but well-meaning blogger who is fed up with comment spam but doesn't understand what effects the nofollow tag will have on the blogosphere?
- Is this a frustrated SEO who couldn't outrank blogs?
- Or <grin> is it … corporate personnel?

Wouldn't be the first time. Jury's still out.