Google Bombs (or Tricks of the Web)
Inspired by last week's Holy Moly newsletter's Chuck Morris trick, we thought we'd find out a bit more about funny internet tricks (which we've now learned are called Google bombs).
First, a definition, courtesy of Wikipedia:
A Google bomb (also referred to as a 'link bomb') is Internet slang for a certain kind of attempt to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine, often with humorous or political intentions.
Here's Holy Moly's, although technically, it's probably not a Google bomb since Google seems to be in on the act...
Go to google.co.uk
Enter 'Find Chuck Norris'
Hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky'
The practice (or prank) got a name in 2001, when one webmaster manipulated search engines to lead to his friend's website through the term 'talentless hack'. You can read about the debut of the term here.
The first one to gain much visibility was in 1999, when searches for 'more evil than Satan himself' launched the Microsoft homepage.
And the most famous one, from 2003, was aimed at George W. Bush, and no doubt made it to your inbox. (If you Googled 'miserable failure', the first result to come up was the White House biography on the US President.)
In 2006, The White House tried to side-step this issue by directing Bush's page to a page about all US presidents. Finally, last year, Google changed the algorithm that was allowing people to manipulate results so directly, and now, the top two listings are for anti-Bush bumper stickers and a BBC article on the bomb.
Of course, that means that future bombs will be fewer and farther between, leaving us to appreciate the ones we had, and look forward to whatever those clever techie guys think of next.
A Google bomb (also referred to as a 'link bomb') is Internet slang for a certain kind of attempt to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine, often with humorous or political intentions.
Here's Holy Moly's, although technically, it's probably not a Google bomb since Google seems to be in on the act...
Go to google.co.uk
Enter 'Find Chuck Norris'
Hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky'
The practice (or prank) got a name in 2001, when one webmaster manipulated search engines to lead to his friend's website through the term 'talentless hack'. You can read about the debut of the term here.
The first one to gain much visibility was in 1999, when searches for 'more evil than Satan himself' launched the Microsoft homepage.
And the most famous one, from 2003, was aimed at George W. Bush, and no doubt made it to your inbox. (If you Googled 'miserable failure', the first result to come up was the White House biography on the US President.)
In 2006, The White House tried to side-step this issue by directing Bush's page to a page about all US presidents. Finally, last year, Google changed the algorithm that was allowing people to manipulate results so directly, and now, the top two listings are for anti-Bush bumper stickers and a BBC article on the bomb.
Of course, that means that future bombs will be fewer and farther between, leaving us to appreciate the ones we had, and look forward to whatever those clever techie guys think of next.
