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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.'"
. . . unify the country.
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I find the practice of SEO to be a bit questionable in any event, but soliciting volunteers to essentially manipulate google search results in order to favor a given political agenda just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Sure, it can argued that the right fights dirty, but where is the honor in stooping to this sort of thing?
Well, I am old enough to remember the sixties -- maybe I'm just becoming obsolete.
Caveat Utilitor
Isn't one of the tenants of democracy that everyone have access to all information and then they decide who's best for themselves? This is poisoning the available information so citizens don't have all of the information about a candidate.
Pretty surprising come from the left, you know, with their morals and such.
Disclaimer: I am a Libertarian and I hate the two main political parties.
Yeah, it's always a lot better to make sure that you taint the conversation.
This is an excellent example of the juvenile "us vs. them" mentality that national US politics has devolved into. I'm a bicycle-riding urbanite liberal stereotype, I still find this sort of idiocy appalling. Let people make up their own minds and hunt for their own information.
--saint
This is not a valid way to promote Obama.
Just let people figure it out themselves.
It's very simple. Do you want something at least SLIGHTLY different than the past eight years? No matter what you want to say against Obama, you are guaranteed something different than the past eight years. With McCain it will be virtually identical except we'll be bombing Iran (and anti-choice for women).
Obviously, it is manipulating
bingo
You have to love how the left bloggers love to cry fowl at every little turn. Yet, when they attempt to rig search engine results it's somehow okay. Regardless of a person political affiliations this type of action should be frowned upon and they people partaking in the event should be shunned by their readers.
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
Seems to me that this is basically a result of this asshole believing Obama can't win without such underhanded tricks.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
This sort of stuff just makes the side doing it seem more juvenile and reactionary... which is an image the democrats need to overcome, not encourage.
I think if they could have shut up their most ardent supporters, the Democrats would have won the last election.
True - we've got two major parties in the U.S., one representing the center of the right wing, one representing the right wing of the center.
It's no wonder that, until this charismatic upstart Obama came along, the "sure winner" of the Democratic primaries was a woman who had been the president of her campus's chapter of the College Republicans, and whose husband was called "the best Republican president we've had in a while" by Alan Greenspan.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Articles in Salon and Mother Jones cast McCain in an unflattering light? No way!!!
Next we'll be reading that the evil "Far Right" Republican bloggers are Google-bombing articles from foxnews.com. ;-D
How very 'progressive'.
A lot of the comments in here complain that these are underhanded, manipulative tactics.
They are not. This is no different than the advertising both sides spend millions on. The whole point of the google search engine, that made it beat the other search engines with their paid results (remember the days of going to four different search engines, and diging down through pages and pages of results, to find something ?) is that google ranked according to what the public expressed as important, via the links they created on web pages. If google didn't rank those stories higher after eveyone started talking about them, then google would be less useful, and start facing competition again.
If these stories were simply untrue, or at least contested, that might be a valid objection. But they are denied in any way by McCain. This is not a "swift boating" or the campaign McCain was victim of in North Carolina to make it seem he had had a child out of wedlock. Citing facts is always fair game in a debate.
I think the Obama supporters might choose better stories, however. While these stories might outrage people who will already vote for Obama, those who are already supporting McCain are unlikely to be moved by them. Perhaps links to McCain's involvement in the Savings and Loan Scandal might be better.
I would like to see what stories the McCain folks would google bomb about Obama. If they are all basically untrue or speculation about his religion or some shit, I think that would tell you who is going to win. Before I participate in this google bombing campaign, I will collect several factual articles about Obama's involvement with that real estate guy, and the ear mark or whatever funding it was that he got for the hospital where his wife worked, and any other well established, factual dirt on Obama. Then I would mix in a link to McCain's POW internment, which I view as a plus on his side, and a few articles on some of the good positions he has taken. On Obama's plus side, I think I would link "Obama isn't in this list" to a list of who voted for the Iraq war; that is the reason why Obama will win the election.
If you have a political blog and you are linking to articles about a political candidate on other web sites, how is that Googlebombing? Isn't that actually the way the web is supposed to work?
Plus the fact McCain isn't really a republican (which is why he threatened, like a little baby, to become a democrat). He's nothing more than a old fart desperate for his moment in the spotlight. People should be concerned about the fact he stands for nothing other than becoming president.
That dishonorable jerks exist across the entire political spectrum. Regardless of your political affiliation, restrict the "fights dirty" label to individuals. Do not generalize the distasteful actions of a few to the entirety of your political opposition simply because it makes things more convenient for you.
If you don't believe and work for this, you will never have it.
Intellectual property was the desert property of the twenth century.
You aren't describing conservatives, you are describing the Republican Party. The Republican Party are not conservative in any way, shape or form. Conservatives would be against the Iraq war. Conservatives would be against increasing the size of the government. Conservatives would be against wiping their asses with the Constitution. Conservatives would be against spending far more money than the country has.
Comparing Salon to Foxnews is like comparing marijuana to PCP. Sure they both have negatives, but one of them will fuck you much harder in the head and could leave you permanently brain damaged.
I don't want to be unified with supporters of McCain.
I think anybody who votes Republican after the past eight years is morally bankrupt, lacks patriotism, and lacks a commitment to basic American values.
1. Announce a Google bomb to the world.
2. Hit the Google blacklist in 3, 2, 1...
3. Links conveniently "gone" from Google.
He's either the most moronic SEO manipulator known to man or his goal is to get the links hidden entirely from Google.
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Yeah. It's a pretty shitty thing to do, although, with all the people saying things like "McCain WANTS troops to be in Iraq for 100 years", it's not surprising.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
I mean, let's forget about getting balanced results and letting people make up their own minds when presented with ALL the facts.
Nobody ever gets ALL the facts. You have a finite amount of time on this mudball and most people do not want to spend it studying the minutia about the two idiots who happen to be running this year (and, yes, I have a clear preference, but after the FISA debacle, he's still an idiot). Google's page rank reflects the reality of the situation vis a vis relative web link importance at a particular current point in time. If McCain's opponents are more web-savvy or more energetic, they will have an advantage in this arena and they will have earned it. If you want more "balance", get McCain's people as motivated as Obama's. If they can't be as motivated, maybe that says something about his importance.
The bottom line is that bitching about the lack of some mythical "balance" on the web is about as useful as complaining about the lack of a mythical immortality for people. It may make you feel better in some strange, warped way but, in the long run, it makes no difference. People have finite time and have only finite means for managing the information they take in over this finite time. Deal with it.
That is all.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
"unless you act to use them for your own benefit, your opponent's information is going to get out there,"
I find this quote to be one of the scariest things I have read in awhile. the idea that suppressing another persons opinions and views is a desirable goal. Personally I dislike both candidates. I find both of their campaigns to be hollow and wouldn't trust either enough to vote for them. I find Obama's views on gun control to border on insane. I would however fight to the death to preserve both parties right to there own opinions. This kind of attitude is exactly whats wrong with our country today.
The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum. - O'Toole's Corollary