Google Buzz: The new hunting ground for slimy, and sneaky, marketers

It is inevitable. Just as the sun rises every morning we find those little corners of the web that we like to call our own slowly becoming infested with the lowest of the low. Yes, I am talking about those irritating and slimy versions of SEO spammers and marketers.

I realize that not everyone involved in those two industries are all bad but the fact is that the majority of them are and no matter where we go on the web they usually end up ruining it for everyone else. They might hide behind things like Fan pages on Facebook and are really noticeable on Twitter – if you really bother to check out those follow request you get instead of blindly hitting the Follow button yourself.

When it comes to Google’s Buzz though I’ve been noticing a new trend when it comes to these scum-buckets. Yes there are the traditional – and very obvious – ploys being used but there is a new breed of these idiots showing up and on the surface they seem to be legit. It is only when you start digging down and taking them as a whole that you start to notice that these are indeed marketing identities setup specifically it seems for Buzz.

Unlike previous social network spamming attempts and their ridiculous mashed up names this new breed actually seem to be going to the effort of using real sounding names. Take these couple as an example

They look really legit as far as names go, and very unlike the typical spamming type of crap we have to deal with in a day, and even when you drill down to their profile they seem to be just another Buzzer looking to follow you. Take Michael Smith for example

Again on the surface it seems to be just another legit entry in Buzz but when you start seeing the exact same thing across a growing number of Buzz profiles you know not is all kosher in Buzzland. Between the ringtones and pay salaries posting Buzz is becoming just like like all the other social networks – a hunting ground.

Here’s two more typical marketer Buzz postings to give you more of an idea of just how innocuous they people are trying to be.

And the onslaught never stops. This is what was waiting for me in Buzz this morning: