If you do a Google search on the word [failure] or the phrase [miserable failure], the top result is currently the White House’s official biographical page for President Bush. We’ve received some complaints recently from users who assume that this reflects a political bias on our part. I’d like to explain how these results come up in order to allay these concerns.

Google’s search results are generated by computer programs that rank web pages in large part by examining the number and relative popularity of the sites that link to them. By using a practice called googlebombing, however, determined pranksters can occasionally produce odd results. In this case, a number of webmasters use the phrases [failure] and [miserable failure] to describe and link to President Bush’s website, thus pushing it to the top of searches for those phrases. We don’t condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we’re also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up. Pranks like this may be distracting to some, but they don’t affect the overall quality of our search service, whose objectivity, as always, remains the core of our mission.

Has Google admitted defeat?

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“We don’t condone the practice of googlebombing , or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we’re also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up.”

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• “If you do a Google search on the word [failure] or the phrase [miserable failure], the top result is currently the White House’s official biographical page for President Bush. We’ve received some complaints recently from users who assume that this reflects a political bias on our part. I’d like to explain how these results come up in order to allay these concerns.
• Google’s search results are generated by computer programs that rank web pages in large part by examining the number and relative popularity of the sites that link to them. By using a practice called googlebombing, however, determined pranksters can occasionally produce odd results. In this case, a number of webmasters use the phrases [failure] and [miserable failure] to describe and link to President Bush’s website, thus pushing it to the top of searches for those phrases. We don’t condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we’re also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up. Pranks like this may be distracting to some, but they don’t affect the overall quality of our search service, whose objectivity, as always, remains the core of our mission.”

Google bombing is similar to the attempt of ‘spamdexing’ where HTML pages are consciously altered so they appear in the top list of SERPs, the purpose being to mislead and misguide search engine users.

Without even reading too much or too deep into the matter, it is apparent Google IS condoning the aforementioned search results. Nevertheless, damage control is a good PR activity for Google Inc especially as it concerns Bush.

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One type of sabotage has become known as “googlebombing.” By linking to your website using certain words (many, many times), an unfriendly individual could make your page the top result for that query. Imagine if people saw your company show up when searching for “moldy yogurt.” (Why someone would search for “moldy yogurt,” I can’t imagine, but you get the idea.)

Worse still, suppose someone typed in the company’s name, and all the top results were related to adult content. Unless you’re in that particular line of business, this could be disastrous. But a saboteur could pull it off by mixing the corporation’s name with adult content and auto-generating posts in blogs and forums.

Don’t despair, though. If you’re unfortunate enough to find yourself in one of these situations, there are ways to defend yourself. One of the simplest strategies is to notify search engine quality assurance teams when someone is spamming your company’s name across the Web. There are cases, though, when a legitimate countermovement to a company is able to establish a strong presence.

In this instance, it can be effective to publish pages stating your side of the story. You can hope that they will gain high rankings through natural means, or you can purchase sponsored listings.

Even with these unpleasant possibilities floating about, the positives of owning a website and a blog still far outweigh the negatives. Just keep an eye out for potential sabotage, and respond quickly when it occurs.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

Google broke its down in its last post for 2005, citing the various blog entries and bloggers that got it to 201 posts over the year.

“During the year, we’ve published 38 how-to tips, announced 77 new products and services, and addressed policy questions and legal matters 17 times. We’ve featured 11 guest bloggers,” Google Blog team’s Karen Wickre posted. “Forty posts have illuminated something about day to day life at Google; 19 have offered some international perspective.”

The analytics reports showed an international side to the Google blog’s visitors as well, despite only being published as an English-language entity. Wickre cited thousands of visitors from France and Turkey, along with many from Thailand and Peru.

Wickre also listed some of the posts that generated a lot of “link love” from bloggers who linked to them:

Many thanks to Google for giving WebProNews so much to write about in 2005, and we’ll look forward to more in 2006.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Fox News Learns About Google Bombing

FoxNews personality John Gibson wrote on Friday about discovering how the word “failure” brings up the official White House web site as the first result. Mr. Gibson has, probably through an email from a viewer, discovered the practice of Googlebombing.

Mr. Gibson discusses what the search engine community already knows: that googlebombing is a practice of using anchor text in hyperlinks. Since the Google algorithm sees lots of links to the same place from different sites, all with the same anchor text, it assumes the destination site is authoritative for that term, and up the search rarnkings it goes.

Apparently the attention prompted someone at Google to make a response. A Google search for “failure” brings up as the top AdWords placement this text:

In the blog entry, Google’s Marissa Mayer, Director of Consumer Web Products, acknowledges receiving complaints about the apparent bias, and denounces those who practice Googlebombing. “We don’t condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we’re also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up,” she posted.

A peek at the top of Google’s executive structure could give those with particular political views a dose of skepticism. Al Gore holds a position as a consultant to Google’s senior executives. CEO Eric Schmidt held a fundraiser for Al Gore in 2000, an event found in Google’s vast database by Cnet News reporter Elinor Mills and subsequently reported by her. That action has caused Google to refuse to speak with Cnet reporters until next July, a response that will likely be a case study for public relations courses everywhere.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Daniel Sieradski, editor of Jew School, a Web site dedicated to Jewish fringe culture, has spearheaded a Googlebomb designed to knock JewWatch.com out of the first place. Yesterday, the top listing for the keyword was Wikipedia.org, a reference page devoted to the definition of the word “Jew”.

As of today, JewWatch.com is back atop the results listings page. Undoubtedly spearheaded by another Googlebomb designed to keep this fight going. As stated before, Google does not change listings, unless regional laws dictate.

This fight for the top position doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

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