An example of Google bombing in 2006 that caused the search query "miserable failure" to be associated withGeorge W. Bush andMichael Moore
Google bombing, also known asGoogle washing, is the practice of causing awebsite to rank highly inweb search engine results for irrelevant, unrelated or off-topic search terms. In contrast,search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving thesearch engine listings of web pages for relevant search terms.
Google-bombing is done for either business, political, or comedic purposes (or some combination thereof).[1] Google'ssearch-rank algorithm ranks pages higher for a particular search phrase if enough other pages linked to it use similaranchor text. By January 2007, however, Google had tweaked its search algorithm to counter popular Google bombs such as "miserable failure" leading toGeorge W. Bush andMichael Moore; now, search results list pages about the Google bomb itself.[2] On 21 June 2015, the first result in a Google search for "miserable failure" was this article.[3] Used both as averb and anoun, "Google bombing" was introduced to theNew Oxford American Dictionary in May 2005.[4]
Google bombing is related tospamdexing, the practice of deliberately modifyingHTML to increase the chance of a website being placed close to the beginning of search engine results, or to influence the category to which the page is assigned in a misleading or dishonest manner.[5]
Google bombs date back as far as 1999, when a search for "moreevil thanSatan himself" resulted in theMicrosoft homepage as the top result.[8][9]
In September 2000 the first Google bomb with a verifiable creator was created byHugedisk Men's Magazine, a now-defunct online humor magazine, when it linked the text "dumb motherfucker" to a site sellingGeorge W. Bush-related merchandise.[10] Hugedisk had also unsuccessfully attempted to Google bomb an equally derogatory term to bring up anAl Gore-related site. After a fair amount of publicity the George W. Bush-related merchandise site retained lawyers and sent acease-and-desist letter toHugedisk, thereby ending the Google bomb.[11]
Adam Mathes is credited with coining the term "Google bombing" when he mentioned it in an April 6, 2001, article in the online magazineuber.nu. In the article Mathes details his connection of the search term "talentless hack" to the website of his friend, Andy Pressman, by recruiting fellow webloggers to link to his friend's page with the desired term.[12] Some experts forecast that the practice of Google Bombing is over, as changes to Google's algorithm over the years have minimised the effect of the technique.[citation needed]
The Google Bomb has been used fortactical media as a way of performing a "hit-and-run" media attack on popular topics. Such attacks include Anthony Cox's attack in 2003. He created a parody of the "404 – page not found" browser error message in response to the war in Iraq. The page looked like the error page but was titled "These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed". This website could be found as one of the top hits on Google after the start of the war in Iraq.[13] Also, in an attempt to detract attention from the far-right groupEnglish Defence League (EDL), a parody group has been made known as "English Disco Lovers", with the expressed purpose of Google bombing the acronym.[14]
The Google bomb is often misunderstood by those in the media and publishing industry who do not retain technical knowledge of Google's ranking factors. For example, talk radio hostAlex Jones has often conducted what he calls "Google bombs" by dispatching instructions to his radio/Internet listeners.[15][16] In this context, the term is used to describe a rapid and massive influx of keyword searches for a particular phrase. The keyword surge gives the impression that the related content has suddenly become popular. The strategy behind this type of Google bombing is to attract attention from the larger mainstream media and influence them to publish content related to the keyword.[citation needed]
By studying what types of ranking manipulations a search engine is using, a company can provoke a search engine intolowering the ranking of a competitor's website. This practice, known asGoogle bowling ornegative SEO, is often done by purchasing Google bombing services (or otherSEO techniques) not for one's own website, but rather for that of a competitor. The attacker provokes the search company into punishing the "offending" competitor by displaying their page further down in the search results.[17][18] For victims of Google bowling, it may be difficult to appeal the ranking decrease because Google avoids explaining penalties, preferring not to "educate" real offenders. If the situation is clear-cut, however, Google could lift the penalty after submitting a request for reconsideration. Furthermore, after theGoogle Penguin update, Google search rankings now take Google bowling into account and very rarely will a website be penalized due to low-quality "farm" backlinks.[19]
Other search engines use similar techniques to rank results and are also affected by Google bombs. A search for "miserable failure" or "failure" on September 29, 2006, brought up the official George W. Bush biography number one onGoogle,Yahoo!, andMSN and number two on Ask.com. On June 2, 2005, Tooter reported that George Bush was ranked first for the keyword "miserable", "failure", and "miserable failure" in both Google and Yahoo!; Google has since addressed this and disarmed the George Bush Google bomb and many others.[citation needed]
TheBBC, reporting on Google bombs in 2002, used the headline "Google Hit By Link Bombers",[20] acknowledging to some degree the idea of "link bombing". In 2004,Search Engine Watch suggested that the term be "link bombing" because of its application beyond Google, and continues to use thatterm as it is considered more accurate.[21]
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.[22]
By January 2007, Google changed its indexing structure[2] so that Google bombs such as "miserable failure" would "typically return commentary, discussions, and articles" about the tactic itself.[2] Google announced the changes on its official blog. In response to criticism for allowing the Google bombs,Matt Cutts, head of Google's Webspam team, said that Google bombs had not "been a very high priority for us".[2][23]
Over time, we’ve seen more people assume that they are Google's opinion, or that Google has hand-coded the results for these Google-bombed queries. That's not true, and it seemed like it was worth trying to correct that misperception.[24]
In May 2004, the websites Dark Blue and SearchGuild teamed up to create what they termed the "SEO Challenge" to Google bomb the phrase "nigritude ultramarine".[25]
The contest sparked controversy around the Internet, as some groups worried thatsearch 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 thatGoogle would alter their algorithm based on the methods used by the Google bombers.
In September 2004, anotherSEO contest was created. This time, the objective was to get the top result for the phrase "seraphim proudleduck".[26] A large sum of money was offered to the winner, but the competition turned out to be a hoax.[citation needed]
In March 2005's issue of.net magazine, a contest was created among five professional web developers to make their site the number-one site for the made-up phrase "crystalline incandescence".
Some of the most famous Google bombs are also expressions of political opinions (e.g. "liar" leading toTony Blair or "miserable failure" leading to the White House's biography of George W. Bush):
In 2003, Steven Lerner, creator ofAlbino Blacksheep, created aparody webpage titled "French Military Victories".[27] When typed into Google, the first result (or the "I'm Feeling Lucky" result) led to a webpage resembling a Google error message, reading, "Your search – French military victories – did not match any documents. Did you mean French militarydefeats?" The page received over 50,000 hits within 18 hours of its release. Links near the top of the page led to a simplified list ofFrench military history. The only war listed as a win for the French was the French Revolution, in which they fought themselves. As of May 2, 2011, the page is no longer listed in Google's first few results for "French military victories", but several links on the list go to sites recounting the joke.[28]
In 2003, columnistDan Savage began hiscampaign to define the word "santorum" after former U.S. SenatorRick Santorum made severalcontroversial statements regarding homosexuality. A search for "santorum" led to the top result being a website defining it as being related toanal sex. One search engine expert has argued that this campaign does not qualify as a Google bomb, arguing that it is instead a successful new definition for a word explained by a website.[29] (seesearch engine optimization)
In 2004, Jewish writer and activistDaniel Sieradski urged visitors to his blog to link to theWikipedia article for "Jew" in response to findings, first publicized by Steven Weinstock,[30][31] that a search for "Jew" returned theanti-Semitic websiteJew Watch at the top of the results.[32] The campaign was successful in displacing the site from the top result.
In France, groups opposing theDADVSI copyright bill, proposed by ministerRenaud Donnedieu de Vabres, mounted a Google bombing campaign linkingministre blanchisseur ("laundering minister") to an article on Donnedieu de Vabres' conviction formoney laundering. The campaign was so efficient that as of 2006[update], merely searching forministre ("minister") orblanchisseur ("launderer") brings up a news report of his conviction as one of the first results.[36]
In December 2004, the "Yan Ang Pinay" ("I am a Filipina") campaign[37] encouraged bloggers to self-identify as Filipina and link the wordFilipina to target URLs such as the Filipina Women's Network (ffwn.org),[38] to displacemail-order bride sites in search results.
In November 2005, after the controversy that erupted in thePhilippines over the allegations that former PresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo had cheated in the 2004 elections, the phrase "pekeng pangulo" (Tagalog for "fake president") was linked to her official website (kgma.org).[39]
In 2005 an Estonian blogger led a successful campaign to link the wordmasendav (Estonian fordismal ordepressive) to the homepage ofEstonian Centre Party.[40] The Centre Party's website still ranks first in the results formasendav as of 2011[update].[41]
In the2006 U.S. midterm elections, many left-wing bloggers, led by MyDD.com, banded together to propel neutral or negative articles about many Republican House candidates to the top of Google searches for their names.[1]
Also in 2006,Siedziba szatana (satan's headquarters) was linked to the website of controversialPolish ultra-conservative Catholic broadcasterRadio Maryja.[42]
In or before 2007,Finnish Minister of CultureTanja Karpela was subject to a Google bombing in which the searchturha lehmä ("useless bitch", lit. "useless cow") returned her web home page. Non-fiction authorPetteri Järvinen [fi] suggested that the Google bomb might have been done in response to Karpela's participation in revising Finnish copyright law. The web site for the Parliament of Finland was also Google-bombed with the search termmordorin linna ("Castle ofMordor").[43]
In March 2007,The Washington Post reported thatNikolas Schiller was able to Google bomb "Redacted Name" to highlight his website's block on search engines.[44]
During the initial stages of the anti-Scientology campaign,Project Chanology, hackers and other members of an anonymous Internet group Google-bombed theChurch of Scientology's main website as the first match found when the term "Dangerous Cult" was searched.[45]
In January 2009, a successful Google bomb was performed against the site of theBulgarian government by a loose group of bloggers and forum users. It was discovered that by mistake, the robots.txt on the government.bg forbade the crawling of the site by indexing machines which allowed for Google bombing. The group linked the search term "failure" (Bulgarian:провал) to the government site. Within a couple of days, the first search result for "провал" was the Bulgarian government's site regardless of the search results language.[47]
In April 2009, the website Smart Bitches, Trashy Books launched a Google bomb againstAmazon in response to its removal ofLGBT material from their ranking lists, Amazon citing it as "adult material". Within hours of its creation the page appeared on the first page of returned search results for the term "Amazon Rank".[48]
In July 2009,Opie and Anthony successfully performed a new method of Google bombing in which a specific word or phrase is artificially raised inGoogle Trends. The phrase "Rev Al is a racist" was made #1 on Google Trends on July 8, 2009,[49] due to the controversial comments made by ReverendAl Sharpton during Michael Jackson's Memorial Service. "Corey Feldman is Hurting" was also number 14 on the top Google Trends for the same day in response to Feldman dressing up as Michael Jackson during the memorial service.[50][51]
In September 2010,4chan users tried to Google bomb the phrase "Robert Pisano MPAA CEO arrested for child molestation!", as a related action to DDoS attacks on theRIAA,MPAA andBritish Phonographic Industry (BPI) websites. This was in retaliation forDDoS attacks carried out onThe Pirate Bay and various other file-sharing sites.[52]
In February 2011, severalanti-abortion activists managed to make it so that the page for abortion onEnglish Wikipedia was the second highest ranking result for the term "murder".[53][54][55]
During the summer of 2011, a joke in response toCraig James’ role in the firing ofMike Leach was posted on EveryDayShouldBeSaturday.com. The joke was indexed often enough by a major search engine that typing "Craig James" into the search box at the search engine resulted in the autocomplete function including "killed 5 hookers".[56] Later this humorous search index behavior was characterized as a "Google bomb" in regards to Craig James’ campaign for elected office.[57]
In July 2012, searching for "plagiator" (Romanian for "plagiarist/cheater") returns the personal page of Romanian prime ministerVictor Ponta, who is accused of plagiarizing his PhD thesis, and various news websites which provide information about the scandal that erupted around the politician. This Google bomb has become itself a piece of news in the Romanian media.[58]
In October 2012, searching the phrase "completely wrong" on Google images, returns pictures ofMitt Romney, the Republican Nominee for the U.S. Presidential Election in 2012. However, this was not actually an example of a Google bomb - the result came naturally from a series of comments made by Romney, rather than a concentrated campaign intended to link the two.[59]
In September 2012 theEnglish Disco Lovers campaign was initiated with the intention of replacing theEnglish Defence League (EDL) as the number one result for EDL on Google.[60] On 27 August 2013 the English Disco Lovers overtook all English Defence League related items and became the top search result for the acronym "EDL".[citation needed]
In June 2015 the search query "top 10 criminals" returned the images of the Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, alongside the images of terrorists, murderers and dictators. However, in an official statement Google apologized[61] and said that it was due to erroneousmetadata published by a British daily publication.[62]
In July 2018, the search query "idiot" returned images of PresidentDonald Trump.[63]
In two separate instances – November 2018 and August 2019 – searching for the wordbhikhari (Hindi and Urdu forbeggar) turned up images ofPakistani Prime MinisterImran Khan, alluding to the country's financial crisis. In response to the first instance, theProvincial Assembly of the Punjab passed a resolution to demand answer from Google on the issue.[64][65] In February 2019, following thePulwama attack, a Google search forbest toilet paper in the world yielded images of theFlag of Pakistan.[66]
Some website operators have adapted Google bombing techniques to do "spamdexing". This includes, among other techniques, posting of links to a site in anInternet forum along with phrases the promoter hopes to associate with the site (seespam in blogs). 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. This practice was also called "money bombing" byJohn Hiler circa 2004.[67][68]
Another technique is for the owner of an Internetdomain name to set up the domain'sDNS entry so that allsubdomains 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 requestedURL. Frequently the subdomain matches the linked phrase, with spaces replaced byunderscores orhyphens. Since Google treats subdomains as distinct sites, the effect of many subdomains linking to each other is a boost to thePageRank of those subdomains and of any other site they link to.
On February 2, 2007, many users noticed changes in the Google algorithm. These changes largely affected (among other things) Google bombs: as of February 15, 2007, only roughly 10% of the Google bombs still worked. This change was largely due to Google refactoring its valuation of PageRank.[citation needed][69][70]
Quixtar, amulti-level marketing company now known asAmway North America, has been accused by its critics of using its large network of websites to move sites critical of Quixtar lower in search engine rankings. A Quixtar/Amway independent business owner (IBO) reports that a Quixtar leader advocated the practice in a meeting of Quixtar IBOs. Quixtar/Amway denied wrongdoing and states that its practices are in accordance with search engine rules.[71]
On December 26, 2011, a bomb was started againstGoDaddy to remove them from the #1 place on Google for "domain registration" in retaliation for its support forSOPA.[72] This was then disseminated throughHacker News.[73]
In Australia, one of the first examples of Google bombs was when the keyword "old rice and monkey nuts" was used to generate traffic forHerald Sun columnistAndrew Bolt's website. The keyword phrase references the alleged $4 billion in loan deals brokered byTirath Khemlani to Australia in 1974.[74]
In Indonesia, PresidentJoko Widodo was a target of Googlebombing on Google Image Search. When searched forMonyet Pakai Jas Hujan (Monkey Wearing Raincoat), the results were President Joko Widodo wearing greenraincoat when on an official visit.[76]
^Gyöngyi, Zoltán;Garcia-Molina, Hector (2005),"Web spam taxonomy"(PDF),Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Adversarial Information Retrieval on the Web (AIRWeb), 2005 in The 14th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2005) May 10, (Tue)-14 (Sat), 2005, Nippon Convention Center (Makuhari Messe), Chiba, Japan., New York, NY: ACM Press,ISBN1-59593-046-9
^""seraphim proudleduck" Contest Announcement". UK: Internet Archive. 2004. Archived fromthe original on November 1, 2004. RetrievedMay 21, 2014.Salmonbones.co.uk is pleased to announce a contest in which anyone who has the ability to publish a page on the web can win. On January the 1st, 2005 at 1am (in the UK) the highest ranked page in google for the search term 'seraphim proudleduck' shall win its publisher £1000. A bonus prize exists for the highest ranked image in google for the same search term.
^Dalton, Richard J. Jr. (March 13, 2003)."Internet Parody Hands French Military a Defeat".Newsday. p. A.27. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)(payment required, link goes to abstract) October 1, 2007
^David Montgomery (March 14, 2007)."Here Be Dragons".The Washington Post. RetrievedMarch 14, 2007.
^Miller, Jason Lee (January 29, 2008)."Scientology Bomb Cruises Past Google".WebProNews: Breaking eBusiness and Search News. iEntry, Inc. Archived fromthe original on February 1, 2008. RetrievedJanuary 29, 2008.
