Blog spam blocker Defensio recently introduced support for OpenID, which is on the upswing after being endorsed by a number of industry heavyweights. OpenID lets Defensio track posters’ behavior. In theory, knowing someone’s commenting behavior can make spam blocking more effective: If someone’s a frequent commenter, they’re safe; but if someone appears out of nowhere and starts commenting, they’re more likely to be up to no good.
The state-of-the-art answer for many bloggers is a plug-in called Akismet. Authored by WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg, the Akismet plug-in receives 16 million calls a day to its API . It isn’t just for WordPress — 30 percent of those API calls come from non-WordPress sites. “We created Akismet because we saw people abandoning blogging because of the trackback spam issue,” said Mullenweg.
Defensio, launched in November 2007, wants to replace Akismet. The startup incorporated two new tricks to help block spam: context and ranking. First, their spam-detection algorithms look at the contents of the post, as well as its comments. So if you write about Viagra a lot, it’s more likely that those Viagra comments aren’t spam. Second, the service returns a “spamminess ranking” rather than a simple spam/not spam decision. This means that bloggers can view the least-spammy (and wrongly classified) comments first.
“We talked to a lot of bloggers who were complaining about spam and false positives,” said Carl Mercier, Defensio’s CEO and founder. “Akismet is by time, but users need a way to show comments by spamminess or by article.”
It’s unclear whether OpenID will give Defensio the upper hand over Akismet. For starters, it depends on the Internet community adopting OpenID in large numbers. Mullenweg is skeptical. “OpenID will change the Internet in interesting ways, but preventing spam is not one of them. Authentication and lightweight identity have not proven barriers to spam in other mediums, like email or ICQ,” he said. “I think Defensio’s use of OpenID is a marketing gimmick.”
Mercier originally set out to make a spam-blocking service like Postini. But when he saw how crowded that market had become, his startup incubator, Karabunga, decided to focus on blogs. He believes users of blog tools other than WordPress will prefer Defensio, citing the links between Akismet and WordPress. But Mullenweg points out that users of sixapart voted Akismet the plug-in they need most.
Some veteran bloggers think there’s room for improvement in blog spam. “It’s not that Akismet does a terrible job, but there doesn’t seem to be much new work being done on it,” said Ben Yoskovitz on his Instigatorblog. “Even some of the Administrative interface changes alone make Defensio worthwhile.”
Much like Akismet, Defensio is offered as a plug-in to blogging platforms alongside a service in the cloud. The company has also opened up its API so the core engine can be used to detect spam in other applications. It hopes to make money through partnerships, as well as paid versions for commercial users and high-traffic sites. But as an alternative to WordPress-owned Akismet, its biggest value may be a deal with other blogging platforms.
Full disclosure: WordPress powers the GigaOM network and True Ventures, one of its investors, is also an investor in GigaOM
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