« Trust is good, control is better | Main | Apple patches patch for a patch »
Could Digg be used for Sun stock manipulation?
Something extremely weird is going on over on Digg.com. Today for the third time in a short period, a story got promoted to the front page where a blogger raises a baseless rumour about Google buying Sun. And as is explained further down, it appears that this is the result of a coordinated effort to fool Digg into promoting the story.
The blog author has no sources, zero credibility and most importantly his reasoning is completely erratic.
It all kicked off when author Daniel M. Harrison on 26 February put up a post discussing Google's stock price, and then out of the blue predicts that Google will acquire Sun Microsystems. As proof, he points out that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a former Sun employee. Secondly Sun CEO Scott McNealy has recently "received 10 million dollars in Sun equity". The blog author fails to explain how that proves a pending sale, and leaves out the fact that McNealy cashed in his stock options and sold the stock the very same day, as SEC filings show.
On 7 March, a second posts goes up referring to a Forbes article in which a financial analyst predicted the departure of Sun CEO Scott McNealy. Google played no part whatsoever in the Forbes story, yet the blogger connected those non-existent dots.
In a third post Harrison used the fact that Sun employees read his second post to claim that there is credibility to his theory. Amazingly, the post makes it to the front page on Digg.com. Apart from the ridiculous assertion that Sun employees reading the posting is proof, the blog author makes a fool of himself when again points to McNealy recent stock transaction but now attributes it to an "anonymous source" instead of an SEC filing.
Today in a fourth post he notes that Sun stock has been up slightly, adding a mere $500m to the company's $16bn market capitalization, and again sees that as proof for his theory (as in: insiders are spending their life savings to strike it rich when the deal is announced. Except that the SEC investigates all insider trading around major mergers). He also points to the fact that a blog on the New York Times' website (which he amusingly claims is "the most authoritative source of financial information on Wall Street") picked up his posts. He conveniently leaves out the fact that the New York Times blog concludes: "according to people involved in the partnership, the speculation is unfounded — at least for now."
Regardless of the credibility question, it's very odd that all these blog posts make it to the Digg.com front page.
The first blog post never makes it to the Digg.com front page, but with 33 diggs, it gets close. The blog author also tries submitting an identical posting on his personal blog to Digg.com, but it only got 9 votes. It's also the very last story that he submits and diggs - with that account at least.
The second post does significantly better, with 312 diggs.
Both the third and the fourth story do very well on Digg.com, and coincidentally are posted by the same person.
Even more amazingly, several users consistently turn up as early diggers for all of the stories: olseneric, ebrage, MarkIsCranky and ZRock.
They found the story even when it wasn't on the Digg front page, and decided to deem it Digg worthy. Or more likely: they have teamed up to manipulate the Digg voting system and get these posts promoted to the front page. Once there, any story will receive plenty of votes. Especially if it has one of the magic four in the headline: Apple, Microsoft, Google or Linux.
Eric Olsen, it turns out, is another author on the Blogcritics.org website - so there is definitely some teaming up going on.
I can only guess about the motives of this group. Hopefully they are just trying to prove that Digg is easy to manipulate – in the worst case, they are speculating against Sun's stock price for financial gain.
--
UPDATE: Just spoke with Digg CEO Jay Adelson. He said that there is no indication that anything extraordinary happened with the way that these Diggs got promoted to Digg's front page. He also said that: "I don't think it's possible to game Digg because it requires such a mass of people who have been vetted through our algorithms."
UPDATE 2: Talking to more some more folks and it seems unlikely that Harrison manipulated the Digg system to get his stories promoted. But they all agree that the theoretical threat is real (contrary to what Adelson says).
Sun and Google chiefs Scott McNealy and Eric Schmidt fall victim to only stock manipulation
Tags: sun microsystems, digg
March 17, 2006 at 06:30 AM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/24766/4473248
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Could Digg be used for Sun stock manipulation?:
» Good or Bad? from A Fickle Beast
Blogcritics.org: It looks like Google's Buying Sun After All Some intersting rumor mongering going on. This could be a big positive for me or an incredible disappointment. With Sun's market cap at $16B and Google at $100B, this is a... [Read More]
Tracked on 17 Mar 2006 18:06:22
» Stock Manipulation 2.0 from A L E A
Silicon Valley Sleuth reports that Digg is being used to talk up Suns stock on a fake Google buyout rumor.
... [Read More]
Tracked on 17 Mar 2006 19:35:15
» Digg Argues It Has Ways to Prevent Manipulation from Blogspotting
Questions were flying about whether Digg is being used for stock manipulation. BW reporter Elizabeth Woyke called Jay Adelson, the company's CEO about measures designed to thrawt that. [Read More]
Tracked on 18 Mar 2006 00:50:36
» Digg manipulation from public virtual MemoryStream
siliconvalleysleuth reported this morning how several stories about Google buying Sun suspiciously made it to the front page of Digg.com. These "baseless rumours" were all submitted and promoted by a small group a Digg members that seem to be working t... [Read More]
Tracked on 18 Mar 2006 03:37:30
» Could Digg be used for Sun stock manipulation? from
Something extremely weird is going on over on Digg.com. Today for the third time in a short period, a story got promoted to the front page where a blogger raises a baseless rumour about Google buying Sun. And as is explained further down, it appears th... [Read More]
Tracked on 18 Mar 2006 07:39:29
» Are Blog Rumors Impacting Stocks? from louisgray.com: live
Now, with community-generated media growing by leaps and bounds through personal blogs, and aggregation sites like Slashdot and Digg wielding a great deal of power in the blogosphere, some are trying to game the system... [Read More]
Tracked on 18 Mar 2006 22:06:20
» Buying Opera from Tweak
Blake Ross:
If you’re thinking of investing in Opera, please don’t be mislead into believing my [URL=http://blakeross.com/2005/12/23/op... [Read More]
Tracked on 23 Mar 2006 13:20:31
» Stock Spam from Paul Mooney
Studying Stock spam is becoming an obsession for some, but this is just another method of Stock manipulation.... [Read More]
Tracked on 26 Aug 2006 17:16:54
Comments
Interesting conspiracy theory. On the other hand, it could just be a blogger attempting to predict the future. This happens all the time as you know -- very high digg numbers for the non-existant widescreen touch video iPod, speculation about Microsoft's Origami, Google's webOS, and so on...
At any rate, I agree with your point on the "magic four", but think it's a bit farfetched to implicate a few users who happen to have the same interests and use digg spy (yes, that big 'dig spy' button on the right side of the digg UI... many people use that to find things in their interest not yet on the home page).
Posted-by: danboarder | 17 Mar 2006 09:37:52
Wouldn't doing this for financial gain be the same as trying to fraud investors by spreading lies?
Posted-by: | 17 Mar 2006 10:19:27
If you look through the other articles that are dugg by some of the users you mention they only digg articles by a few select posters. If you look at olseneric's list of dugg articles he has 92 posts which he has dugg, of those posts 65 were posted in the last 46 days. Between those 65 posts that he dugg only 6 contributors are seen on the list: CPhillips, ebrage, pwinn, Willowtree, Huntjo, and aacool. If you then go to their pages you will see that they are all participating along with them to get their posts listed higher.
If you look at some of the posts that were dugg by them, but few others you can find a few more members that are participating in their scheme: mattlargo, satisfieddog, midnitcafe, gypsyman, sarcirohan, Tan The Man, patfish, Mark Schannon, Diana, and chkngrrl,
Posted-by: keith | 17 Mar 2006 11:28:35
LOL!
Posted-by: kmarex | 17 Mar 2006 11:38:22
its an interesting theory, and one that is plausable but I hope untrue. Did you think that maybe the four regular diggers could be friends of his who visit his website often and thought the post to be diggable? At least I hope that is what has happened, it would be a shame if digg became used like this, then any company or person who want propaganda spread could use those simple methods :/ maybe it is time for digg to implement a de-dig?
Posted-by: Simon | 17 Mar 2006 12:09:44
I voted for his story on reddit, not because it seemed credible but because it was bizarrely entertaining. Let's face it, any overheated story about Google's next move is interesting, even if just plain daft. I certainly won't be buying Sun stock any time soon. I think you're beginning to put 2+2 together and get 5 - exactly like he is.
Posted-by: Neil | 17 Mar 2006 12:24:14
Uhoh, SEC is investigating...hope this doesn't give others ideas.
Posted-by: Crazoo | 17 Mar 2006 12:26:46
This is why digg.com sucks.
Posted-by: | 17 Mar 2006 12:31:27
This is why people should use slashdot. It's so better.
Posted-by: Waohoo | 17 Mar 2006 12:43:14
Why do you think the several diggers are different people coordinating together?
Its far more likely to be just one guy with multiple accounts. I'm surprised this never occurred to you?
Posted-by: Digg Dugg | 17 Mar 2006 12:57:25
w00t! Let the fur fly
Posted-by: devboy00 | 17 Mar 2006 13:14:34
Every one knows that digg is fixed. Why would some one post the same thing and get less than 10 diggs then another post the same thing and gets 1000's
Posted-by: Roomba | 17 Mar 2006 13:16:19
I found your story on the front page of Digg today. I poste a comment and for some reason the story has disappeared. I can only get to it by looking at stories I've commented on or dugg. Strange.
Posted-by: TheKidd | 17 Mar 2006 14:18:45
I've noticed before that I get more hits on my own blog for articles tagged with things like Sun and Google. The majority of early adopters of sites like Digg and Delicious are techies and so more likely to mark sites mentioning such companies. So, it doesn't take too many early, coordinated references to bring stories to the attention of people who would be inclined to bookmark them anyway.
Posted-by: Phillip Fayers | 17 Mar 2006 15:41:54
Phillip Fayers absolutely right.
All you need to do is to type "Google" in the title of your post....
Posted-by: Will | 17 Mar 2006 16:42:00
Could it just be that the several users who all dugg the stories early are simply regular users of Digg Spy? I tend to give more weight to the simplest explanations.
Posted-by: Natch | 17 Mar 2006 16:51:42
I do agree with you that there are serious problems with Digg and that it is ripe for manipulation. With all this hoopla over the success as Digg expands, I think its pretty clear that Digg is having problems. That kid who got 'hired' by google is another good example. Although I like Digg and ue it regularly, I find that the system is fundamentaly flawed for fraud, manipulation and baseless user hype.
Posted-by: johnny | 17 Mar 2006 22:08:58
"I poste a comment and for some reason the story has disappeared. "
This is what I consider the primary problem with Digg, misleading and sensationalist headlines. Inaccurrate articles (like the original Google/Sun Digg) tend to get buried fairly quickly, but the headline this article, which clears things up was posted with a very misleading headline. Instead of the speculation why someone is trying to work the system, instead the headline turns it into a statement of fact. So the correction/follow-up that states the truth gets buried along with the original story.
Posted-by: DisposableRob | 18 Mar 2006 05:26:39
it's so evident that Google will buy Sun. Instead of stupid speculations on digg manipulation or not, if you have deep knowledge about the two companies or do a few research on the net and take only a few minutes to mesh all the news, it will be clear.
Posted-by: blje | 18 Mar 2006 22:56:44
The truth is that there is a campaign by Blogcritics.org to get traffic to the site, and Digg (and other similar sites) are being used to do it. Select articles from Blogcritics are chosen to be submitted, and a cadre of Blogcritics authors and interested parties will Digg (or Shout or whatever) the submitted article. It doesn't have anything to do with stock manipulation, although the author of those articles selected may have other motivations. Interesting theory, though, and you do point out how sites like Digg can be manipulated by a small group of people. I'm surprised at how long it's taken for users to notice.
Posted-by: Anna | 31 Mar 2006 01:13:57
its really surprsining that such big guns fell for stock maipulations which makes me feel that is anyone actually safe there in the market
phillip
Posted-by: phillip | 30 Jun 2006 11:57:51
No matter what u do out there just remember that ultimately you and only you are responsible for the investments that you make bcos the share market is such a place that a small mistake can make you an ordinary guy frm a millionare.
justin
Posted-by: justin | 1 Jul 2006 11:58:32
My main concern is that you can't guarantee every page of your website will be included in the SERPs. Considering I'm constantly adding new products to my company's website, I need to be sure that customers can find them as soon as possible.
Posted-by: SEO | 22 Jul 2007 15:29:34
Indian stock market
Hi Everyone.
Your blog is nice and informative. We think your visitors will like this posting.
We all know that Indian stock market has become volatile now a days. One day its going up and another day its coming down. So we all should like to know
what is the reason for it. As in the last post we have mentioned that FII are the main reason, but now to there are few more factors adding to worries, they are:-
1. FII profit booking.
2. Political issue - Indo-US nuclear issue.
3. 25 Basis cut which was expected by US people of atleast 50 basis.
4. Low volumes due to holidays in coming week.
We suggest you to take bit long positions right now as market is volatile so don’t prefer intraday trading for few days.
All scripts are currently trading at low price hold them for 10-15 days so gain maximum.
Regards
SHARETIPSINFO Team
+91-9899056796
+91-9891655316
+91-9891890425
Posted-by: ShareTipsInfo.com | 20 Dec 2007 05:52:14
Vigrx plus is answer for your erectile dysfunction, anti impotence, penis enlargement, and hard rock erections. www.vig-rxplus.com
Posted-by: vigrx plus | 2 Jan 2008 20:03:24
Penis enlargement products reviews that works best to gain 2-3 inches to your penis size naturally and produces hard rock erections in demand. www.penissizeenlargement.net
Posted-by: Penis enlargement | 20 Jan 2008 11:54:11
Dont suffer in silence get the average penis enlargement gain through best and effective penis enlargement source. www.naturalherbalz.com/menshealth/penis-enlargement/index.html
Posted-by: Penis enlargement | 3 Feb 2008 19:54:12
Great website.
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 11 Feb 2008 10:14:18
Great website.
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 11 Feb 2008 10:14:45
Natural herbal health care medicines, Articles, informations and daily updated health concerns issues and their solutions for better health and better life. www.naturalherbalz.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 24 Feb 2008 18:48:51
Buy generic Viagra, Cialis, Propecia, Soma, Acomplia Rimonabant, Levitra and other generic drugs online, http://www.you-cheap-drugstore.com offers you the finest quality generic drugs for a very competitive price. Buy Generic Viagra today!
Posted-by: GeoffHl | 4 Mar 2008 11:36:13
http://google.com google
Posted-by: go | 13 Mar 2008 23:05:43
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=35
Posted-by: Beauty | 13 Mar 2008 23:08:23
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=36
Posted-by: Beauty | 13 Mar 2008 23:09:14
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=37
Posted-by: Beauty | 13 Mar 2008 23:10:09
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=38
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=39
Posted-by: Beauty | 13 Mar 2008 23:10:56
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=40
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=41
Posted-by: Beauty | 13 Mar 2008 23:11:44
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=42
http://astore.amazon.com/nodebuy-20/?node=43
Posted-by: Beauty | 13 Mar 2008 23:12:38
I am glad to post my views and points in this blog, but I must say that webmaster of this blog has done a very great job to make his blog more informative and more discussable but unfortunately everything is same here that more than 80% in this and other blogs post their comments for making spam!!!, so i will really all this spam links to google band tool, because webmaster makes blogs for making discuss and for sloving each other problems. thanks
http://www.naturalherbalproduct.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 16 Mar 2008 19:28:35
nice blog
Posted-by: horse game | 29 Mar 2008 00:56:52
I am glad to post my views and points in this blog, but I must say that webmaster of this blog has done a very great job to make his blog more informative and more discussable but unfortunately everything is same here that more than 80% in this and other blogs post their comments for making spam!!!, so i will really all this spam links to google band tool, because webmaster makes blogs for making discuss and for sloving each other problems. thanks
http://www.naturalherbalproduct.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 1 Apr 2008 19:34:13
I am glad to post my views and points in this blog, but I must say that webmaster of this blog has done a very great job to make his blog more informative and more discussable but unfortunately everything is same here that more than 80% in this and other blogs post their comments for making spam!!!, so i will really all this spam links to google band tool, because webmaster makes blogs for making discuss and for sloving each other problems. thanks
http://www.naturalherbalproduct.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 1 Apr 2008 19:36:42
I am glad to post my views and points in this blog, but I must say that webmaster of this blog has done a very great job to make his blog more informative and more discussable but unfortunately everything is same here that more than 80% in this and other blogs post their comments for making spam!!!, so i will really all this spam links to google band tool, because webmaster makes blogs for making discuss and for sloving each other problems. thanks
http://www.naturalherbalproduct.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 1 Apr 2008 19:38:41
I am glad to post my views and points in this blog, but I must say that webmaster of this blog has done a very great job to make his blog more informative and more discussable but unfortunately everything is same here that more than 80% in this and other blogs post their comments for making spam!!!, so i will really all this spam links to google band tool, because webmaster makes blogs for making discuss and for sloving each other problems. thanks
http://www.naturalherbalproductz.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 9 Apr 2008 10:42:36
[...]Could Digg be used for Sun stock manipulation?A very admonish site where you can get penis enlargement pills at easy cost .Could Digg be used for Sun stock manipulation?
http://www.naturalherbalproductz.com
[...]
Posted-by: penis enlargement medicine | 9 Apr 2008 15:44:36
health and medical news and information on health care drugs and medicines for healthy living and better life. www.naturalherbalz.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement | 9 Apr 2008 18:39:42
[...][...]
http://www.naturalherbalproductz.com
[...][...]
Posted-by: penis enlargement medicine | 12 Apr 2008 04:16:52
You can make your penis longer, larger, thicker, and possibly improve your ability to control your ejaculation without surgery, needles, weights, pumps, or traction devices.The success rate is approximating 93%. American adult porn industry and doctor's recommened online store.
http://www.penisenlargementincs.com/
Posted-by: penis enlargement enhancement | 25 Apr 2008 18:25:42
American top penis enlargement vigrx plus's online store with very CHEAP PRICES, Health store for men and women Approved by doctors and adult magzine and FDA approroved guaranteed.Including skin products,hairloss , weight control, diet supplement and above all please (Becareful by all others Scams Fraud sites).Good luck. I am offering you money back guarentee and free coupons on all products.Goodluck
http://www..penisenlargementincs.com
Posted-by: penis enlargement vigrx plus | 27 Apr 2008 10:07:14
Dont trust the salesman,always trust the doctor.Only one and only men's and women's natural health prdoucts,eurpore and american's largest store Recommended by FDA approved Doctors.They are offering cheap prices and free coupons make sure u get it before coupons expires.
http://www.penisenlargementincs.com
Posted-by: vigrx plus penis enlargement | 27 Apr 2008 19:45:59
The best price for CIALIS just over here:
http://www.takepill.com/cialis.htm
Buy Cialis Generic Online in our Drugstore. No prescription Needed. Worldwide shipping.
Best Price. Multilingual. Confidential.
Buy Cialis Online
New PRICE only $1.61 per pill.
20mg x 10 pills $35.95 US $ 3.60 per pill
20mg x 20 pills $69.95 US $ 3.50 per pill
20mg x 30 pills $89.95 US $ 3.00 per pill
20mg x 60 pills $139.95 US $ 2.33 per pill
20mg x 90 pills $189.95 US $ 2.11 per pill
20mg x 120 pills$229.00 US $ 1.91 per pill
20mg x 180 pills$289.00 US $ 1.61 per pill
http://www.takepill.com/cialis.htm
Buy Cialis Online
New PRICE only $1.61 per pill.
Posted-by: Geoff Holden | 30 Apr 2008 05:15:30
Men who need penis enlargement solutions like penis enlargement pills penis enlargement oil and women needing breast enlargement pills can get an easy guide.
http://www.skincarefairy.com
Posted-by: Penis Enlargement Pills | 1 May 2008 06:08:17
Herbal Nutritional Supplements are one of the most popular ways to get your body functioned properly and it promotes general good health. Getnutri.com has its own individuality in selling Herbal Nutritional Supplements. We carry more than 9000 products, which are divided into different stores based on their relative categories. We always try to provide quality products wrapped up in the package of reasonable prices and best services, considering that here we present a wide range of Herbal Nutritional Supplements, which we carry to facilitate our valued customers.
http://www.smart-herbals.com
Posted-by: Penis Enlargement Products | 1 May 2008 06:09:24
90% accurate stock recommendations in any market condition with exact entry price, exit price & stop loss every single day on your email & mobile thru SMS.
For more info please visit :http://www.5minutetrader.com
Posted-by: 5minutetrader | 1 May 2008 10:20:23
this blog actually contains very informative stuff.... good job :)
http://www.buyaviagra.net
Posted-by: tracy | 4 May 2008 10:20:16
yeah tracy your right its a very informative blog , it has all kind of information about our daily routine things
regards
http://www.penisenlargementu.com
Posted-by: venessa | 5 May 2008 19:37:37
Buy Cialis online and order Cialis. The LOWEST Cialis Prices Guaranteed!! Why Pay More?? Buy Cialis from the leading online DISCOUNT CIALIS pharmacy and we provide cheap Cialis by mail with NO Prior Prescription. Fast Worldwide Delivery.
Posted-by: Geoff Holden | 8 May 2008 09:07:45
Spanish
