Disclaimer; I’m not looking for a VPN service, I already have one. I know TechRadar is not a great source too. I am simply doing research around VPNs in general.

I am just wondering why DDG is suggesting this link over a link without a reference? Is this “the blame” of DDG or Techradar? Trying to understand why this is the link being served over others. Appriciate any suggestions.

  • Zikeji@programming.devEnglish
    561·
    5 months ago

    DDG is suggesting it because it has no custom rules setup to sanitized indexed URLs. Most likely it just means the first link to the article their crawler found has the referral tag in it.

    But the plot thickens.

    On Bing if I search “TechRadar shufliada” I see a few similar results, including other websites with the same site in the URL.

    If I go to the website I find in their about page it says:

    The goal of “Shufliada” is simple: to make the Ukrainian language more visible on the Internet/Google search.

    Which while it could be innocent, almost suggests they’re intentionally backlinking popular websites in hopes their link to it is what gets indexed. IMO the blame doesn’t lie with either DDG nor TechRadar.