Of interest to DP members in particular, a blogger has announced that he's trying to Googlebomb John McCain so that negative articles about him come up on the first page of Google. It's an old trick to Googlebomb a politician (think "miserable failure") but it's pretty new to see it in an election cycle.
I feel that anyone should not use such black hat methods to influence the election results, it should be a fair election with each candidate able to reach out to the masses and convey their messages across. Manipulation of search results etc will be against the spirit of democracy.
They aren't affecting the election results, just the information. There's always a war with the information, I consider this to be pretty normal.
There are ethical ways and unethical ways, I do not think google bombing is an ethical way of doing things. Boon
Trying to rank in Google for competitive keywords related to John McCain is not ethical how? You realize a Google Bomb is just building backlinks quickly - this is merely risky SEO, but SEO nonetheless.
I remember when they did that for George Bush...typed in "miserable failure" and his biography was the first result
Bad timing. I plan on doing my own youtube bomb on obama a WEEK before the general elections because I know that most people thinking about voting for him are genuine idiots and have short attention spans.
Those "Google bombing" tactics could backfire and make voters turn away from Obama. Be careful what you ask for...you may not like the results.
There is no black hat. Sometimes I will use the terms blue hat, gray hat, black hat, but there really is no black hat. There are simply SEO/SEM techniques. A fair election would have Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr on the stage during the debates. There is nothing fair about a two party monopoly on government power.
But aren't search results a part of the democratic nature of the web? If more people are pointing to negative stories than positive ones, the negative stories will come out on top. Obviously, the campaigns will be working and releasing PR announcements, trying to do the SEO work for the positive stories (even if McCain himself doesn't know what "a Google" is someone in the campaign surely does). I often try to give a little SERP boost to articles that agree with or provide support for my political opinions... I figured it was part of my obligation as a member of a democratic/representative society.
Google bombing isn't the same as normal campaigns and releasing PR etc, it is far more blackhat than that.
meh, its all grey to me unless someone is hacking peoples' sites to add links to their template If you get too many people working on the same SEO campaign, suddenly its a problem? Google has to draw a line somewhere to get the best results, but if it is editorial activity (for or against) that is what a backlink is supposed to represent
Agree that it may be a flaw, but making use of a flaw for one's political ends to me seemed a bit underhanded.
That would make a lot of sense, seeing as how he belongs to the Mises Institute, which is based around a Jew, has written a book about a Jew, and has had Jews on his campaign staff and as personal friends. Have you ever considered that Ron Paul doesn't hate Jews, he just hates race baiters such as yourself?