* A political blogger has announced that he is attempting to “Googlebomb” John McCain in an attempt to influence the 2008 presidential election. By “Googlebombing,” he’s attempting to manipulate the Google search engine so that certain negative links about John McCain appear higher up in a search for “John McCain” and similar searches. He’s doing this by placing links around the Internet in an attempt to make the negative articles appear more popular than they actually are, in the hope of getting Google’s search algorithm to rank them higher than positive articles about John McCain. He hopes to change the results enough that the first page of Google will be filled with negative links about John McCain, instead of the mixed positive and negative links that appear there now.
[Editor's note: Since we don't want to impact his campaign one way or the other, we're applying the "nofollow" attribute to any link related to his Googlebomb. The "nofollow" tells Google to ignore the links and not consider them in its rankings.]
This is a pretty big development. It’s not the first time that Google has been an important part of a presidential campaign. For example, Ron Paul’s supporters tried very hard to keep positive information about their candidate at the top of a Google search for “Ron Paul.” They were so confident that they would be able to keep positive information about their candidate at the top of a Google search that they rented a blimp that instructed viewers to “Google Ron Paul.” And it’s not the first time that the White House has been the subject of a Google bomb; there was once a rather famous googlebomb that tried to make George W. Bush appear at the top of a search for “miserable failure.”
But, this is the first time that there has been a public attempt to influence a presidential election by artificially inflating the negative publicity surrounding a candidate through a Googlebomb. Some people think it’s a dirty trick. Other people think it’s a natural part of a modern political campaign. Either way, it’s a trend we haven’t seen the end of.
The idea of a Googlebomb is especially powerful given how important the first page of Google results are. Google has around an 80% market share for search. In other words, 80% of people get their search information from Google. And we’ve talked about how most users only read the first page of Google search results, and then focus most of their attention on the first three results (“power hits”). This kind of technique allows politicians and their supporters to control the first page of Google, and thus control what information the world discovers about a candidate.
It’s also especially powerful because it allows candidates to campaign negatively without looking like they are running a negative campaign. It’s possible to launch a completely anonymous Googlebomb, unlike most other forms of negative campaigning. Candidates can get all the benefits of a negative campaign without having to face the backlash that usually follows attack ads.
It’s also possible that this will lead to an arms race on the Internet between campaigns. Right now, opponents of John McCain are dropping a negative Googlebomb against him. It’s possible that his supporters will respond by trying to bomb positive results back to the top of Google and by attacking Barrack Obama through a negative googlebomb of their own.
Is a campaign tactic that will become commonplace in the future, a dirty political trick, or both?
If you’ve been a target of a Googlebomb, it’s not too late to restore your online image. Services like MyEdge can be a first step toward getting your good name back.
* As always, I’m proud to be guest-blogging and my views don’t necessarily represent those of Reputation.com or its employees.
15 comments ↓
I don’t see this as being anything new. Remember “Miserable Failure” ??? I think Google will be manually manipulating their political search results because of this. I doubt they will allow an overtly negative website to show up very high for a search like “John McCain” or “Barack Obama.”
Whats that? do you hear that? Sounds like someone is pissing into an ocean.
Googlebombing McCain – Can one blog change the election? | politikly.com…
\r\nOne blogger has announced that he\’s trying to change the course of the election by Googlebombin…
Can we round up all the brownshirts and torture enthusiasts and re-educate them after Obama gets elected this fall? Perhaps the first course of study should be evolution and the necessity that they quit dragging their knuckles so low in the dirt. FWIW, Google probably rate non-anonymous opinions like mine higher. Therefore, when folks google Obama they will see that I think he is the perfect candidate with the best chance to save America.
Enjoy.
Can i submit FlipFlopExpress.info to be added to the “negative” sites about McCain that would be moved up into the front page? It’s a blog of all 27 of John McCain’s Flip-Flops.
“this is the first time that there has been a public attempt to influence a presidential election by artificially inflating the negative publicity surrounding a candidate through a Googlebomb”
Um. No. See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Google_bombs_in_the_2004_U.S._Presidential_election
“It’s also possible that this will lead to an arms race on the Internet between campaigns.”
Of course. During the 2006 midterms, both sides launched Googlebombs against each other, and both sides are Googlebombing each other right now. It’s not just OpenLeft that’s doing this, take a look around the political blogosphere, Googlebombs are flying around like mad right now.
I say FAIR GAME. It’s in total public domain, and up to the people with guts and smarts to make it happen.
Bloggers aren’t buying those top spots with millions from corporations… THAT’S not fair. Often irrelevant, but they bought it. It’s just another grassroots tool. And yes, both sides can do it… so how is it not fair?
It’s not even more manipulation than Fox News. People need to read between the lines and quit being so blind to truth sitting right there. FAIR GAME.
Oh, I stop at page five. I’m burying my own competition; that’s where she lives now.
I don’t think someone as young and as hip as Obama, remember he can fist bump, has anything to worry about when it comes to losing the internet to the McCain supporters and their wireless access from their retirement homes.
So to me it just looks like a waste of a perfectly good Googlebomb.
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Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.–Will Rogers, (1879–1935), U.S. humorist
The meek may inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.–John Paul Getty (1892–1976), U.S. industrialist
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this is another awesome Mccain parody… check it out. Its hilarious…(actually it would be hilarious if the whole Mccain situation wouldn’t be that sad)
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