Blogger Launches 'Google Bomb' At McCain

hhavensteincw writes "A liberal blogger has launched a 'Google bomb' project aimed at boosting Google search results for nine news articles showing Sen. John McCain in a negative light. The Computerworld article notes: 'Chris Bowers, managing editor of the progressive blog OpenLeft, is launching the Google bombs by encouraging bloggers to embed Web links to the nine news stories about McCain in their blogs, which helps raise their ranking in Google search results. Bowers is reprising a similar Google bombing effort he undertook in 2006 against 52 different congressional candidates. "Obviously, it is manipulating, but search engines are not public forums and unless you act to use them for your own benefit, your opponent's information is going to get out there," Bowers said.'"

Comments

Re:Links?

[martinw89]

http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6422

Seems like this is a Match on a Fire

[CaptainPatent]

Honestly, the generation that gets their information from the internet (instead of cable or newspapers) is going to have a much more liberal bias in general. All you have to do is look at age group demographics for any polling done and you'll see the heavy liberal skew to the younger ages.

With that being said, there are already going to be many, MANY more blogs with a pro-Obama, anti McCainb standpoint than the alternative already. Having a few more people bump some anti-McCain articles may bump them up a couple slots, but I guarantee with the demographics of internet users, those articles probably weren't doing badly on their own.

Besides, republicans already have their propaganda machine too *cough* Fox News *cough* Ann Coulter *Cough*

Re:Seems like this is a Match on a Fire

[klingens]

Honestly, the generation that gets their information from the internet (instead of cable or newspapers) is going to have a much more liberal bias in general. All you have to do is look at age group demographics for any polling done and you'll see the heavy liberal skew to the younger ages.
  There is a saying here (paraphrased): "A 20 year old liberal will end up a 70 year old conservative and doesn't have to change a single of his views".

So I don't fear for the conservative parties of the world just yet.

Defeated

[shird]

Apparently Google already has protection against such "bombs":
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/01/quick-word-about-googlebombs.html

I have no idea how the algorithm detects such a bomb, but it appears to be pretty effective.

Tag?

[dreamchaser]

Why is this tagged 'Republicans' when it's a Democrat doing the deed?

I expect both sides will engage in this kind of thing though to be honest.

Re:Tag?

[dreamchaser]

True, he is a bit of a RINO (Republican in Name Only). He's hard to classify because his positions keep shifting.

Re:Raises tough questions

[corbettw]

I certainly hope you don't think you can counter the likes of Karl Rove simply by being honorable... Rove isn't McCain's campaign director. It's unfair to tarnish McCain for Rove's actions (especially when he was a victim of them, himself, in 2000 and 2004).

Re:What a dick.

[je ne sais quoi]

Oh jeez, come on! That's like asking when the last time water was wet. Just the other day on Fox they were talking about how when Barack Obama bumped fists with his wife and they called him a terrorist (link). Or how about that picture of him when he was dressed up in traditional Somali garb (=90% Christian), claiming he was dressing up as an muslim (link, etc. etc. etc. Face it, the modern conservative political view is synonymous with character assassination. You can thank Rove, and the other Republican attack dogs for that.

Re:Raises tough questions

[Anonymous Coward]

Rove seems to be involved in McCain's campaign.

Re:What a dick.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just the other day on Fox they were talking about how when Barack Obama bumped fists with his wife and they called him a terrorist (link)

Dishonest. She was talking about something someone else said.

Or how about that picture of him when he was dressed up in traditional Somali garb (=90% Christian),

You mean the picture that the Clinton campaign released?

But don't let the facts get in the way of your bias.

What about Obama claiming McCain wants 100 years of war, even after being called on it twice? Yes, McCain certainly wants 100 years of war when he says "as long as no one is getting killed." That's the candidate himself straight up lying in an attempt to smear. (But then again, Obama just went back on his public financing pledge. Do we sense a pattern?)

What about 90% of the shit coming out of MoveOn? Anyone who thinks they're not just a smear-machine needs to put the pipe down. They've also went out and used the 100 year war lie, recently in fact. Or the NAACP running an ad in Texas about Bush not sponsoring hate crimes legislation, using the murder of James Byrd, voiced over by his daughter? Bush didn't sponsor hate crime legislation, and in this case, it wasn't needed: two of the three men were sentenced to death and the third was sentenced to life. The NAACP ad didn't mention this, despite being made over a year after the men were sentenced. (Of course, you also don't see the NAACP out shooting to have the men who murdered Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom tried for hate crimes... and that is far worse than the Byrd murder, there's just not a chance to smear Republicans in it for them)

Trying to pretend it's just Rove and Republicans is fucking dishonest.

Re:What a dick.

[je ne sais quoi]

Dishonest. She was talking about something someone else said.

Funny how often Fox finds these people that said something slanderous. Let me explain it to you, they do that to protect themselves from a libel suit. Jon Stewart had a funny piece on it (link).

You mean the picture that the Clinton campaign released?

Bullshit. The Clinton campaign didn't release that, the Drudge report only claimed Clinton staffers released it, but they could easily have lied to discredit Clinton because they hate her more than they hate Obama.