[CAnet - news] Google Boombing - how to manipulate google results
"Bill St.Arnaud" <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.culture.publications.news |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <004501c5b9fb$1c40dd30$1321bdcd@amarillo> |
For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 4 Optical Internet program web site at http://www.canarie.ca/canet4/library/list.html ------------------------------------------- [From a posting on Dave Farber's IPer list. Some excerpts from the original article -- BSA] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3298443.stm George W Bush has been Google bombed. Web users entering the words "miserable failure" into the popular search engine are directed to the biography of the president on the White House website. The trick is possible because Google searches more than just the contents of web pages - it also counts how often a site is linked to, and with what words. Thus, members of an online community can affect the results of Google searches - called "Google bombing" - by linking their sites to a chosen one. Weblogger Adam Mathes is credited with inventing the practice in 2001, when he used it to link the phrase "talentless hack" to a friend's website. The search engine can be manipulated by a fairly small group of users, one report suggested. Newsday newspaper says as few as 32 web pages with the words "miserable failure" link to the Bush biography. ------------------------------------- To SUBSCRIBE: send a blank e-mail message to [email protected] To UNSUBSCRIBE: send a blank email message to [email protected] ------------------------------------- These news items and comments are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the CANARIE board or management. ----------- [email protected] www.canarie.ca/~bstarn skype: pocketpro SkypeIn: +1 614 441-9603 _______________________________________________ news mailing list [email protected] http://lists.canarie.ca/mailman/listinfo/news