So, after it happened to George W. Bush a while back, it’s the turn for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry to be Google-bombed.
An effort by some conservative bloggers has pushed the candidate’s campaign website to the top of the result list when the word “waffles” is typed into Google.
But Kerry’s campaign is smarter than Bush’s and they’re trying to capitalize on the prank.
The campaign has purchased Google AdWords, sponsored links that come up beside results when certain words are searched. The short links also refer to Kerry’s website, but suggest users “read about President Bush’s Waffles.”
Google-bombing has fast become a popular prank on the Web. Bloggers have found they can manipulate search results by hyperlinking unsavory labels to individual pages. The trick also works on Yahoo, Lycos and AltaVista.
I think this is really cool and interesting. And if the prank gets to the stage where it works, it actually shows how many people think that way and should send a clear signal to whoever the prank is targeted at.
