Google bomb
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A Google bomb or Google wash is an attempt to influence the ranking of a given site in results returned by the Google search engine. Due to the way that Google's PageRank algorithm works, a website will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page all use consistent anchor text. Googlebomb is used both as a verb and a noun.
See Spamdexing for the practice of deliberately and dishonestly modifying HTML pages to increase the chance of them being placed close to the beginning of search engine results, or to influence the category to which the page is assigned in a dishonest manner.
For example, if a user registers many domains and all of them link to a main site with the text "... is a living legend" then searching for "living legend" on Google will return the main site higher in the ranking, even if the phrase "living legend" doesn't appear on the main site. A common means of exploiting this is through weblogs, where although the entry may disappear from the main page quickly, the short-term effects of a link can dramatically affect the ranking of a given site. Empirical results indicate that it does not take a large number of websites to achieve a Googlebomb. The effect has been achieved with only a handful of dedicated weblogs.
The above statement has to be qualified, however. A handful of blog links will not Google bomb someone like Amazon out of the top results for "books," for example. In fact, Googlebombs have generally had an impact on relatively "non-competitive" terms, where there's no particular page that seems to be necessarily the right answer.
The technique was first discussed on April 6, 2001 in an article by Adam Mathes [1] (http://uber.nu/2001/04/06/). In that article, he coined the term "Google bombing" and explained how he discovered that Google used the technique to calculate page rankings. He found that a search for "internet rockstar" returned the website of a Ben Brown as the first result, even though "internet rockstar" did not appear anywhere on Brown's webpage. He reasoned that Google's algorithm returned it as the first result because many fan sites that linked to Brown's website used that phrase on their own pages.
Mathes began testing his theory by setting out to make the website of his friend Andy Pressman the number one result for a query of "talentless hack". He gave instructions for creating websites and links to Pressman's website with the text of the link reading "talentless hack". Sure enough, as other webloggers joined in his Googlebombing campaign, Pressman's website became the number one result in a Google search for "talentless hack". (Ironically, by 2004, Mathes's own site was the number one Google result of this search term.)
However, the first Google bomb mentioned in the popular press may have occurred accidentally in 1999, when users discovered that the query "more evil than Satan (http://www.google.com/search?q=more+evil+than+Satan)" returned Microsoft's home page. Now, it returns links to several news articles on the discovery.
Ironically, Google bombs often end their life by being too popular or well known, thereby attaining a mention in well regarded web journals and knocking the bomb off the top spot. It is sometimes commented that Google bombing need not be countered because of this self-disassembly.
In addition, the entire notion of "Google bombs" might be better described as "link bombing," given that these campaigns can certainly have an effect on other search engines, as well. All major search engine make use of link analysis and thus can be impacted. Thus, a search for "miserable failure" on 1 June 2005 brought up the official George W. Bush biography number one on Google, Yahoo and MSN and number 2 on Ask Jeeves. On 2 June 2005 Yooter InterActive (http://yooter.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry050602-180255) reported in their blog the discovery that George Bush is now ranked for the keyword 'failure' as well as 'miserable failure' in both Google and Yahoo.
The BBC in reporting (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1868395.stm) on Googlebombs in 2002 actually used the headline of "Google Hit By Link Bombers," acknowledging to some degree the idea of "link bombing." In 2004, the Search Engine Watch site argued (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3345071) that the term should be "link bombing" because of the impact beyond Google and continues to use that term as more accurate.
Nevertheless, "Google bombing" was added (http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050516-184202) to the New Oxford American Dictionary in May 2005.
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Accomplished Googlebombs
Recent (as of 2005) and popular examples are:
- ¿Quién quiere estafarnos? (http://www.google.com.ar/search?q=quien+quiere+estafarnos) (Spanish for "Who wants to swindle us?") points to the homepage of Telecom, provider of phone and ADSL services in southern Argentina. This bombing was started at http://bombardeo.blogspot.com because of the company's announcement to limit download transfer to 4 GB per month (for 512 kbit/s connections).
- Ladrones (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ladrones&btnG=Google+Search) (Spanish for "thieves") points to the homepage of SGAE, (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores), the Spanish equivalent of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The SGAE is an extremely unpopular association in Spain since they not only try to prosecute users of P2P applications, but also impose surcharges on the price of physical media such as recordable CDs in order to account for the theoretical losses due to P2P exchanges.
- "Arabian Gulf" does not exist (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22arabian+gulf%22&btnI) - points out the correct name for the body of water south of Iran, the Persian Gulf.
- Weapons of mass destruction - Internet Explorer Error look-alike joke page saying "weapons of mass destruction cannot be found". (Note: as of 1 December 2004, the joke page, although still available at [2] (http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/), had fallen to 20th place in the Google search result.)
- Similarly, Armas de destruccion masiva (http://www.google.com/search?q=armas+de+destrucci%C3%B3n+masiva&btnI), Spanish for "Weapons of mass destruction", gives a Spanish version of the page above.
- Miserable failure (http://www.google.com/search?q=miserable+failure&btnI), worst president (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=worst+president&btnI) and great president (http://www.google.com/search?q=great+president&btnI) - whitehouse.gov biography of George W. Bush. Due to the search query of "miserable failure," the search terms miserable (http://www.google.com/search?q=miserable&btnI) and failure (http://www.google.com/search?q=failure&btnI) also point to the biography of George W. Bush. Recently, they've added unelectable (http://www.google.com/search?q=unelectable&btnI) to point to the biography on the White House's homepage. Interestingly enough, www.unelectable.com also points to the same page, and is second in Google's Search for "unelectable." See also miserable failure. With the addition of Google Local (http://local.google.com/local?sc=1&hl=en&q=miserable+failure&near=washington+dc&btnG=Google+Search&rl=1) and Maps, searching for the phrase in Washington DC provides George W. Bush as the first result.
- litigious bastards (http://www.google.com/search?q=litigious+bastards&btnI) used to give the homepage (http://www.sco.com/) of the SCO Group, which initiated the SCO v. IBM lawsuit alleging copyright violation in the Linux kernel. bastards (http://www.google.com/search?q=bastards&btnI) also worked.
- Jew (http://www.google.com/search?q=jew&btnI) - JewWatch, an anti-Semitic group, was for a long time the number one hit when searching on Google for "Jew", perhaps because of its linking pattern. The Wikipedia entry replaced it following a Googlebombing campaign organized by Daniel Sieradski, editor of the blog Jew School (http://www.jewschool.com). [3] (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4767133/) [4] (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1082606042155) [5] (http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20040416GooglebombingOfJewKeywordContinues.html) Google added an explanation page entitled Offensive Search Results (http://www.google.com/explanation.html) and placed it in the sponsored link section.
- Buffone (http://www.google.com/search?q=buffone&btnI) - unofficial Silvio Berlusconi (Italian Prime Minister) biography. "buffone" is the Italian for "clown".
- Miserabile fallimento (http://www.google.com/search?q=miserabile%20fallimento&btnI) - official Silvio Berlusconi (Italian Prime Minister) biography. "miserabile fallimento" is the Italian for "miserable failure".
- Santorum (http://www.google.com/search?q=santorum&btnI) - "Spreading Santorum," a campaign to ridicule Senator Santorum by naming a mixture of bodily substances after him (see Santorum controversy).
- Out of Touch Executives (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22out+of+touch+executives%22&btnI) - Used to lead to Google's own corporate information page. Out of Touch Management (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22out+of+touch+management%22&btnI) used to work as well.
- Waffles (http://www.google.com/search?q=waffles&btnI) - Used to lead to John Kerry's 2004 election site, originated here (http://esoteric-diatribe.blogspot.com).
- Food Nazis (http://www.google.com/search?q=food+nazis&btnI) - Points to "Center for Science in Public Interest" (which advocates strict regulatory oversight of genetically engineered foods).
- Raar Kapsel (http://www.google.com/search?q=raar+kapsel&btnI) ("Weird Haircut" in Dutch) - Returns the biography of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenende, who is known for his distinctive hairstyle.
- Gladjakker (http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&q=gladjakker&btnG=Google+zoeken&lr=) ("smoothie") returns website of Camiel Eurlings, the leader of the Dutch Christian-Democrat faction in the European Parliament.
- Searching UK domains only (http://www.google.co.uk) for poodle (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=poodle&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB&btnI) gives you a link to a Tony Blair biography (http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/page4.asp).
- Velky bratr (http://www.google.com/search?hl=cs&q=Velk%C3%BD+bratr&lr=) (Czech for "Big Brother") - returns a biography of Stanislav Gross, the Prime Minister of Czech Republic.
- Ignorant Asshole (http://www.google.com/search?q=ignorant+asshole) returns the website of Cal Thomas. The reason was his column (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,140612,00.html).
- Despota Cachaceiro (http://www.google.com.br/search?hl=pt-BR&q=D%C3%A9spota+Cachaceiro&btnG=Pesquisar&meta=) return to website of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, about the polemic New York Times article (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30E16FB3E580C7A8CDDAC0894DC404482).
- Old Rice And Monkey Nuts (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=old+rice+and+monkey+nuts) returns the website of Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. The phrase is an obscure reference to Tirath Khemlani, a Pakistani commodities trader who was involved in brokering an improbable US$4 billion loan deal to the Australian Government under Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1974. Khemlani was known derisively by his usual line of trade - rice and monkey nuts. As he was involved in commodities and not financial transactions as a rule, it was believed that Khemlani did not have access to the funds as he claimed but would attempt to obligate the Australian Government of the day to pay a huge commission for arranging the proposed loan. The bomb was perpetrated at the suggestion of Ausculture (http://www.ausculture.com) for reasons unknown.
- lying sack of shit (http://www.google.com/search?&q=lying+sack+of+shit) returns the Parliamentary web page of Australian Federal Attorney General Phillip Ruddock. This bomb was suggested by weezil (http://weezil0.blogspot.com) and executed by a number of Australian bloggers in protest of Ruddock's protracted political smear of the now exonerated Mamdouh Habib
- fuckwit (http://www.google.com/search?&q=fuckwit) used to return John Prescott who is Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He rose through the trade union movement from humble beginnings as a steward in the merchant navy, and is renowned for his straight-talking manner.
- swivel eyed loons (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=swivel+eyed+loons) returns the homepage of the UK Independence Party after the phrase - initially used to describe the party by blogger Anthony Wells - was adopted by several British bloggers.
- gastrointestinal dysentery (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=gastrointestinal+dysentery) returns Kres Chophouse & Lounge in Orlando, Florida. A restaurant that fired a server for blogging about work.
- völlige Inkompetenz (in eng. "total incompetence") (http://www.google.at/search?hl=en&q=v%C3%B6llige+inkompetenz&btnG=Search) returns the homepage of Karl-Heinz Grasser, the Austrian minister of finance.
- populista (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=populista) (Slovak for "populist") - returns an official homepage of Robert Fico, a left-wing Slovakian politician.
- liar (http://www.google.com/search?q=liar) on Google - returns Tony Blair, the UK Prime Minister accused of misleading the public over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
- ignorant bigots (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ignorant+bigots) - returns the official page of Christian Voice, a fundamentalist Christian organisation in the UK.
- kretyn (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kretyn) (which means in Polish cretin) - returns the page with information about Polish politician Andrzej Lepper
- French military victories (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=french%20military%20victories) returns a fake google error page which suggests "French military defeats" as an alternate search.
- International Sign for Choking (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=international+sign+for+choking) in Google Images search yields the logo of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, shortly after their defeat in Super Bowl XXXIX. The same search today also shows a logo of the New York Yankees baseball team, in reference to their stunning ALCS loss to the Red Sox in 2004. (As of June 2005, neither of these results are returned)
- Mouton insignifiant (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&q=mouton+insignifiant&meta=) (French for "trivial sheep") - returns the official page of Jean Charest, Prime Minister of the province of Quebec, in Canada. It refers to his curly hairs.
Googlebombing competitions
- Main articles: nigritude ultramarine, seraphim proudleduck
In May 2004, Dark Blue (http://www.darkblue.com) and SearchGuild.com (http://www.searchguild.com) teamed up to create what they termed the "SEO Challenge". They offered an Apple iPod to the person whose page was the first result for the search phrase "nigritude ultramarine" one month after the competition's start. A Sony flat-screen monitor was the prize for being the first result one month later.
The contest sparked controversy around the Internet, as some groups worried that search engine optimization (SEO) companies would abuse the techniques used in the competition to alter queries more relevant to the average user. This fear was offset by the belief that Google would alter their algorithm based on the methods used by the googlebombers.
In September 2004, another SEO contest was created. This time, the objective was to get the top result for the phrase "seraphim proudleduck".
Google's response
Google has defended its algorithms as simply a reflection of the opinion on the Web, saying that it is not damaging the overall quality of its services. Google has said it expects Googlebombing to return to obscurity and has dismissed it as "cybergraffiti" and just another internet fad.
On 18 January 2005 the Google blog (http://www.google.com/googleblog/) entry "Preventing comment spam" declared that Google will henceforth respect a rel="nofollow" attribute on hyperlinks. Their page ranking algorithm now avoids links with this attribute when ranking the destination page. The intended result is that site administrators can modify user-posted links such that the attribute is present, and thus an attempt to googlebomb by posting a link on such a site would yield no increase from that link.
Googlebombing in general
In some cases, the phenomenon has produced competing attempts to use the same search term as a Googlebomb. As a result, the first result at any given time varies, but the targeted sites will occupy all the top slots using a normal search instead of "I'm feeling lucky". Notable instances of this include failure (http://www.google.com/search?q=failure) and miserable failure (http://www.google.com/search?q=miserable+failure). The primary targets have been the Bush biography above (as well as another biography of Jimmy Carter on the same site), Michael Moore's website at www.michaelmoore.com, and the Senate website of Hillary Clinton.
Searching for miserabile fallimento (http://www.google.com/search?q=miserabile+fallimento) (Italian for "miserable failure") was returning Berlusconi biography (http://www.palazzochigi.it/Presidente/Biografia/biografiait.html), until the webmaster inserted the HTML tag that prevents the page from being indexed by Google (<meta name="googlebot" content="noindex, nofollow" />).
It is interesting to note that because of the popularity of Google, other search engines such as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com), AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com), and HotBot (http://www.hotbot.com) are also affected by Google Bombs. A search of "miserable failure" on the forementioned search engines produce the biography of George W. Bush listed at the White House site as the first link on the list. Only a few search engines, such as Ask Jeeves! (http://www.ask.com), MetaCrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com) and ProFusion (http://www.profusion.com), do not produce the same first links as the rest of the search engines. MetaCrawler and ProFusion are metasearch engines which use multiple search engines... this might explain why they do not produce the biography of George W. Bush listed at the White House site as the first link on the list when searching for "miserable failure."
Commercial googlebombing
Some unscrupulous website operators have adapted googlebombing techniques to spamdexing.
One such technique is the posting of links to a site in an Internet forum along with phrases the promoter hopes to associate with the site. Unlike conventional message board spam, the object is not to attract readers to the site directly, but to increase the site's ranking under those search terms. Promoters using this technique frequently target forums with low reader traffic, in hopes that it will fly under the moderators' radar. Wikis in particular are often the target of this kind of page rank vandalism, as all of the pages are freely editable.
Another technique is for the owner of an Internet domain name to set up the domain's DNS entry so that all subdomains are directed to the same server. The operator then sets up the server so that page requests generate a page full of desired Google search terms, each linking to a subdomain of the same site, with the same title as the subdomain in the requested URL. Frequently the subdomain matches the linked phrase, with spaces replaced by underscores or hyphens. Since Google treats subdomains as distinct sites, the effect of a large number of subdomains linking to each other is a boost to the PageRank of those subdomains and of any other site they link to.
As of 2 February 2005, many have noticed changes in the Google algorithm that largely affects, among other things, Googlebombs. As evidence of this, ponder that only roughly 10% of the googlebombs listed above work as of 15 February 2005. This is largely due to Google refactoring its valuation of PageRank, mostly in an effort to keep up with the encroaching result relevancy of the Yahoo and MSN search engines, which many people claim are not nearly as easy to "hack" as Google.
The Amway Quixtar Google bombing example
In 2005, multi-level marketing giant Amway Quixtar began a "Quixtar Web Initiative" to manipulate Google results. The project was deemed a clear and flagrant violation of Google's Quality Guidelines (http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2004/11/google_guidelines.php).
Amway Quixtar leaders told members that the company had "hired geekoids who were spending their time Google bombing positive info about Quixtar so that the negative sites would be buried way down at the bottom of the Google list when a prospect types in Quixtar (http://www.google.com/search?q=quixtar&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=iw) [in a search engine]. Nobody will even be able to find the negative sites anymore." SOURCE: Quixtar Admits Google Bombing (http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2004/11/quixtar_admits_google_bombing.php)
The goal in this case was to smother anti-Amway and anti-Quixtar sites, a consumer protection group (http://www.pyramidschemealert.org/PSAMain/home.html), an eBook about Amway and Quixtar (http://www.merchantsofdeception.com), Amway/Quixtar story blogs (http://www.letsgetthewordout.com/amway-quixtar-blog/lets_get_the_word_out/), and grassroots movements from ex-Amway or ex-Quixtar members (http://www.letsgetthewordout.com/) that claim Amway or Quixtar is a Pyramid scheme or cult, or uses deceptive business practices.
Quixtar's attempt to lower the ranking of such critical web sites backfired, and Google officially reprimanded Quixtar (http://www.amquix.info/quixtar_spanked.html) for its attempted Googlebombing.
As of January 2005, a search on Google for "Quixtar (http://www.google.com/search?q=quixtar&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=iw) " reveals that the Quixtar.com site dropped from the number one search position to the middle of the third page of search results.
The organized effort to manipulate search engine results was first brought to light by bloggers which detailed the offenses in an article "So Busted" (http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2005/01/so_busted.php).
Ironically the site that reported Quixtar's attempt to Google bomb once occupied the first search position under "Quixtar". In fact a majority of the top ten results for the term "Quixtar" are all now informational sites critical of the Quixtar business opportunity and its lines of sponsorship.
Quixtar's initiative to spam the internet included at least 54 Quixtar Blogs (http://www.amquix.info/quixtar_spanked.html) and numerous other company-related sites (http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2004/10/the_quixtar_web_initiative.php), character assassination blogs, adoration blogs, and various other pages. Immediately after the exposure many of the blogs shut down or reduced their content.
Amway Quixtar also has independent lines of sponsorship. Some of these businesses have been among the largest abusers of Google bombing. These independent lines of sponsorship are lead by Independent Business Owners often called IBOs, Quixtar Diamonds, Amway Crowns or kingpins such as Bill Britt (http://www.technorati.com/tag/Bill%20Britt) of Britt Worldwide (http://www.bww.com), Dexter Yager (http://www.technorati.com/tag/Dexter%20Yager), Fred Harteis (http://www.technorati.com/tag/Harteis), Orrin Woodward of Team (Team of Destiny (http://www.amquix.info/team_google_bombing.html)) and other Diamond IBOs.
Googlebombing and similar practices cost Google money and skew search engine results. Users who observe such actions can take action in several ways:
- Write the offending company or individual to complain
- Notify groups that oppose deceptive business practices (http://www.letsgetthewordout.com)
- Contact your state Attorney General (http://www.letsgetthewordout.com/lawyers_lawsuit/attorney_generals.html)
- Notify the Better Business Bureau
- Post your discoveries and observations to blogs and internet message boards
Search engine bombing before Google
Before Google existed, eccentric USENET poster Archimedes Plutonium, upset with the attention he received from users who found him amusing, posted an angry message (http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.logic/msg/2b83ce040dc40a4b?dmode=source) to two science newsgroups. He accused these people of "SearchEnginebombing," an offshoot of Emailbombing, that is cluttering the web/USENET with negative comments about him, so a search engine would find more of them than his own postings. Unlike "Google Bombing", the term "Search Engine Bombing" didn't immediately catch on, and initially its use has been primarily limited to Archimedes Plutonium, and USENET posters who mocked him.
See also
External links
- Google Blog 2005-Jan-18 (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html) Preventing comment spam
- Adam Mathes' original webzine article (first attacker) (http://uber.nu/2001/04/06/)
- Andy Pressman (first victim) (http://web.archive.org/web/20021217221001/www.ohmessylife.com/words/00000027.html)
- "Googlebomb Watch" (http://blog.outer-court.com/googlebomb/) - Keeping track of Googlebombs
- Google hit by link bombers (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1868395.stm) - BBC News, March 13, 2002
- Top of the Heap (http://lightningfield.com/david/clips/0207googlebombing.html) - Business 2.0, July 2002 - Ego bombing
- Web Posters Launch Anti-Bush 'Google Bomb' (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=99625&page=1) - ABC News, December 8, 2003
- Engineering Google Results to Make a Point (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/22/technology/circuits/22goog.html?ex=1390194000&en=90e67992909e0ad4&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND) - NY Times, January 22, 2004
- Why Googling 'Waffles' Gets You John Kerry's Web Site (http://www.mtv.com/chooseorlose/headlines/news.jhtml?id=1488022) - MTV News, May 28, 2004
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