Now, thanks to some Reddit users who refuse to let Santorum escape without a steady reminder of the alternative definition of his last name, it appears as if Santorum’s “Google problem” won’t be going away anytime soon.

Remember the Google bombs of old? You know, the nigritude ultramarine contest, John Kerry’s waffles fun, and George Bush’s miserable failure results? Well, some Reddit members are ensuring the alternate definition for “Santorum” applies to queries for the last name by itself and for searches using his first and last name. The strategy, just in case you forgot, was explained perfectly in the Reddit comments:

A public notice regarding Santorum.

Not completely sure how it works, but evidently if you link Santorum with the web site http://spreadingsantorum.com/ then that tends to keep Santorum name properly associated with the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.

Something about Google bots picking up Santorum’s name each time Santorum is mentioned and linked online like that.

So to review, when you link Santorum with the web site http://spreadingsantorum.com/ then that tends to keep Santorum’s name properly associated with the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.

Evidently this happens every time Santorum’s name is mentioned and linked online, so please be careful when you do mention Santorum’s name, and especially when you may associate Santorum with the web site http://spreadingsantorum.com/ and then further reference Santorum with the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this notice about Santorum.

This comment is followed by a number of troll-like comments that link the “Rick Santorum” name to the SpreadingSantorum.com website, with the goal of having the alternate definition rank highly for both the “Santorum” and the “Rick Santorum” search queries.

And their efforts seem to be working.

As of Josh’s writing, the site promoting the alternate definition that has the Senator up in arms — The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex — was ranked third when the term “Rick Santorum” was queried. Today, SpreadingSantorum.com has moved up to the second position.

So, considering Reddit’s efforts, does this mean it’s still Google’s problem or does Santorum need to hire some SEO experts for his campaign?

And apparently, he has contacted Google in an attempt to rid himself of the annoyance. That request has been denied.

First, a little background for those of you who are unfamiliar with Rick Santorum’s Google problem:

Years ago, Santorum drew the ire of popular blogger Dan Savage by making some unsavory comments regarding the gay community. During an interview where he stated the position that consenting adults have no expectation of privacy, Santorum equated homosexuality to bigamy and incest. He also made some comments relating homosexuality to bestiality, although he has maintained that the were taken out of context.

Either way, Savage and some other activists were less than pleased. They launched a Google bombing campaign to redefine the definition of the word “Santorum.” Through SEO tactics and link-trading, they were able to push a website called spreadingsantorum.com to the very top of the Google search results for “Rick Santorum.”

To this day, if you search “Rick Santorum” or just “Santorum,” the first thing that you will see is this definition:

1. The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex. 2. Senator Rick Santorum.

For reasons that need be explained to nobody, Rick Santorum isn’t pleased with this. And Politico is reporting that the Senator has contacted Google in an attempt to have the site removed. According to the report, he referred to Google as a purveyor of filth and an irresponsible business –

“I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they’d get rid of it,” Santorum said. “If you’re a responsible business, you don’t let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country.”

He continued: “To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can’t handle but I suspect that’s not true.”

A Google spokesperson has responded, saying that Google “does not remove content from out search results, except in very limited cases such as illegal content and violations of out webmaster guidelines.” Basically, no dice, Senator.

In a recent Funny or Die video, Dan Savage threatens to redefine the word “Rick” if the Senator attacks gay people during his presidential campaign. The clip taps celebrities with a particular interest in keeping the name unscathed. It’s funny, and NSFW –

Santorum’s Google problem was front and center back in May when The Daily Show decided to bring it up on his birthday.

Unfortunately for Rick Santorum, his apparent request to Google has really only done one thing: Upped the searches for “Rick Santorum” on Google.

Except the popularity is leading people to discover something less than savory regarding the former Senator from Pennsylvania.

Santorum is the victim of a Google bomb, or briefly, the intentional manipulation of page rankings on Google search. The most famous Google bomb happened back in 2004 when an effort made it so George W. Bush’s bio page was result #1 when users searched the phrase “miserable failure.”

If you search “Rick Santorum” on Google, the top result just under the news section is not wikipedia, or his official website – it’s a rather interesting fake definition.

The Google bomb campaign began at the behest of popular blogger Dan Savage back in 2003. Santorum had made some remarks comparing homosexuality to pedophilia and bestiality, which obviously offended the gay community. They decided to fight back by manipulating the page results to display their preferred description of the then Senator right at the top. It worked, and this is what search results for “Rick Santorum” have looked like for years: (Warning, it’s a little crude)

Santorum is certainly not the most buzzed about presidential hopeful. But today, he finds himself in the Google Trends mix thanks to Jon Stewart. On last night’s Daily Show, Stewart asked people to Google Santorum, and it looks like they listened. Stewart joked, “he might as well change his name to lemon party.” If you don’t know what that is, don’t Google it – it’s disgusting and highly offensive.

Now I won’t speculate that Santorum’s “Google problem” will knock him out of the race, but candidates have been bounced for less. Remember Howard Dean’s scream? Yeah, this is totally worse.

According to Lenssen’s personal translator Ludwik Trammer, a 23-year-old programmer tested some Google-bombing software (he called it "website positioning" software) and made it so that a search on Google for "kutas," or "penis," returned the official website for Polish president Lech Kaczynski.

After officials traced the IP address back to the programmer, he faces up to three years in prison for insulting the president. Though making light of the Presidential Pole in such a manner may have landed him in pokey, software such as the one described is sure to make him rich and famous – at least until Google finds an answer for it.   

 The White House had seemingly put the Google bombing behind them.
So how did the President once again yield a number one ranking for the search term "failure?"

Danny Sullivan explains," The White House used the word "failure" on Bush’s page, which resulted in the page becoming relevant for the query again."

" If the White House was smart, they’d have realized it can never ever ever ever use the words "miserable" or "failure" or both of them together without risking showing up in Google’s top results for searches on those words."

Here is the exact text from the President’s radio address that has him associated with the term failure. "The bottom line is that Congress’s failure to fund our troops will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines."

Sullivan also points out that just the single use of the word "failure" was enough to activate the link bomb. Once the word is no longer on the White House home page the ranking should return to its previous state.

Past Google bombs include the search term "weapons of mass destruction" which displayed a fictitious "Internet Explorer Error Page" and "French military victories" which displays a bogus Google page that says" no results found for French military victories, did you mean French military defeats?"

Google Bomb Returns, Hits Microsoft

The familiar four-paned window icon Microsoft uses to represent its signature operating system came in for a little defacement.

The vandalism showed up in a very public place, right on the Google Maps search result for Microsoft

The image has since been taken down. A copy of it appeared on ZDNet blogger Garett Rogers’ ‘Googling Google’ post about the protest image made available to Google Maps searchers.

A reviewer on Yelp’s website managed to have her image of the Windows logo with a red circle and slash over it show up in the little popup for Microsoft’s Bellevue, Washington address. Rogers explained how this could happen:

How is this possible? Well, "Sara B" decided to upload an anti-Windows image along with her review of the company — it so happens she reviewed the #1 ranking result on Google Maps for the term "Microsoft". This is a problem because images from Yelp appear in the organic search results on Google Maps.

While it is only a mildly embarrassing prank, it does have implications beyond adding to the nigh-infinite number of jabs Microsoft has taken over the years.

If people can upload images to the info bubble for Microsoft on Google Maps, it seems likely it could be done for other companies.

As with all the other details of one’s online presence, our readers will want to keep an eye on their Google Maps information.

Additional information can be found at Google’s Local Business Center, and dropping in at Yelp to check for listings there about one’s business would be a good idea too.

Chris Bowers of the blog MyDD (Direct Democracy), with friends on the Left like the DailyKos, the HuffingtonPost, and MoveOn.org, invited those of like-philosophy to participate in a Republican smear campaign tentatively named “Google Bombing The Election.”

This particular Google-bomb is quite sophisticated, carrying a double warhead containing manipulated search results and an AdWords campaign. It is targeted at the 70 Republican candidates running for Congress across the nation – a list that includes Rick Santorum and recently controversial George Allen.

From Bowers description:

Bowers said that BlogPac, an organization devoted to “waging politics online” run by Bowers and MyDD blogger Matt Stoller, would pay the costs of an AdWords campaign targeting what he predicts to be 20 million voters searching for candidates online.

It is unclear as to whether negative political AdWords campaigns are really allowed. Google has been known to ban political advertisements as a violation of guidelines against “the advertisement of websites that contain language that advocates against an individual, group, or organization.”

But that may be a technicality if they’re advertising a news article instead of a website. Google has not responded for comment on the planned Google-bomb.

The setting off of the bomb comes with some interesting timing. Just today, Google announced the release of the Google Earth Election Guide, a service that gathers information about candidates running in every district – who’s running, their campaign finance information, voter registration sites, and live feeds from Web search and News search results.

If Bowers accomplishes his mission, that new service will be an unexpected extension of the arsenal. Not to aid their enemies or anything, but it seems an AdWords campaign is easily defeated if Republican opposition wanted to engage in some click fraud to drain BlogPac’s advertising budget.

Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews: