Jeff Jarvis commented on the splogs this weekend (like everyone else), but there are a couple of interesting comments if you scroll down - have a look at what Steven DenBeste said:

Ultimately there isn’t any permanent solution to this kind of thing. Any system which permits anyone to create readable material on anyone else’s system will be abused by spammers.

The only real solution is to assume that a certain percentage of people out there are hostile, and to design accordingly. Automatic trackback, for instance, was always a terrible idea because it assumed universal good faith.

And then below that, this:

By the way, has it occurred to you that it is economically to Google’s advantage to let the current situation persist? As long as Google can keep its own search results clean, then the spam blogs will make everyone else’s search engines useless and thus drive traffic to Google.

Why would Google want to change the situation? Certainly it would be both illegal and immoral for Google to actively work to pollute the search results of its competitors, but I don’t think that benign neglect of spammer abuse of Blogspot is actionable, and it serves the same purpose. Certainly if that’s what Google is thinking, then it’s slimy. But not illegal, and not actionable. And it’s difficult to see why Google would want to expend any significant effort to try to fix the situation.

Certainly food for thought. Also, make sure to walk through to Elliot's post on splog prevalence on BlogSpot - apparently, it's nearly a third (I'd really love to see historical tracking on that!). Kind of blows a hole in Evan Williams' breezy 1% nonsense...