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Revision as of 08:02, 1 April 2004 edit67.70.75.211 (talk) Michael Moore has replaced Dubya as the #1 result for "failure" and "miserable failure"← Previous edit Revision as of 19:27, 1 April 2004 edit undoMichael Snow (talk | contribs)Administrators19,338 edits updating based on more current resultsNext edit →
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Mathes began testing his theory by setting out to make the website of his friend Andy Pressman the number one result for a query of "talentless hack". He gave instructions for creating websites and links to Pressman's website with the text of the link reading "talentless hack". Sure enough, as other webloggers joined in his Googlebombing campaign, Pressman's website became the number one result in a Google search for "talentless hack". Mathes began testing his theory by setting out to make the website of his friend Andy Pressman the number one result for a query of "talentless hack". He gave instructions for creating websites and links to Pressman's website with the text of the link reading "talentless hack". Sure enough, as other webloggers joined in his Googlebombing campaign, Pressman's website became the number one result in a Google search for "talentless hack".


] and popular examples are, amongst others, ] and popular examples are, among others:
* - number one hit is ]'s website at www.michaelmoore.com, displacing the whitehouse.gov biography of George W. Bush from the top slot.
⚫ * - Michael Moore again, again displacing George W. Bush.
* - George Bush biography again
* - hoax, DNS Error look-a-like page saying "weapons of mass destruction cannot be found". * - hoax, DNS Error look-a-like page saying "weapons of mass destruction cannot be found".
* - hoax, Google look-a-like page saying "no results found for french military victories, did you mean french military ''defeats''?" * - hoax, Google look-a-like page saying "no results found for french military victories, did you mean french military ''defeats''?"
⚫ * - whitehouse.gov biography of ].
* - homepage of the ]. * - homepage of the ].


Best results are obtained when using the "I'm feeling lucky" button, which automatically redirects the user to the first result. Best results are obtained when using the "I'm feeling lucky" button, which automatically redirects the user to the first result.

In some cases, the phenomenon has produced competing attempts to use the same search term as a Googlebomb. As a result, the first result at any given time varies, but the targeted sites will occupy all the top slots using a normal search instead of "I'm feeling lucky". Notable instances of this include and . The primary targets have been the Bush biography above (as well as another biography of ] on the same site), ]'s website at www.michaelmoore.com, and the Senate website of ].


Google has defended its algorithms as simply a reflection of the opinion on the Web, saying that it is not damaging the overall quality of its services. Google has said it expects Googlebombing to return to obscurity and has dismissed it as "cybergraffiti" and just another internet fad. Google has defended its algorithms as simply a reflection of the opinion on the Web, saying that it is not damaging the overall quality of its services. Google has said it expects Googlebombing to return to obscurity and has dismissed it as "cybergraffiti" and just another internet fad.

Revision as of 19:27, 1 April 2004


A Googlebomb is an attempt to influence the ranking of a given site in results returned by Google. Due to the way that Google's algorithm works, a website will be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page all use consistent text. Googlebomb is used both as a verb and a noun.

For example, if a user registers many domains and all of them link to a main site with the text "... is a living legend" then searching for "living legend" on Google will return the main site higher in the ranking, even if the phrase "living legend" doesn't appear on the main site. A common means of exploiting this is through weblogs, where although the entry may disappear from the main page quickly, the short-term effects of a link can dramatically affect the ranking of a given site. Empirical results indicate that it does not take large number of websites to achieve a Googlebomb. The effect has been achieved with only a handful of dedicated weblogs.

The technique was first discussed on April 6, 2001 in an article by Adam Mathes. In that article, he coined the term "Google bombing" and explained how he discovered that Google used the technique to calculate page rankings. He found that a search for "internet rockstar" returned the website of Ben Brown as the first result, even though "internet rockstar" did not appear anywhere on Brown's webpage. He reasoned that Google's algorithm returned it as the first result because many fan sites that linked to Brown's website used that phrase on their own pages.

Mathes began testing his theory by setting out to make the website of his friend Andy Pressman the number one result for a query of "talentless hack". He gave instructions for creating websites and links to Pressman's website with the text of the link reading "talentless hack". Sure enough, as other webloggers joined in his Googlebombing campaign, Pressman's website became the number one result in a Google search for "talentless hack".

Recent and popular examples are, among others:

Best results are obtained when using the "I'm feeling lucky" button, which automatically redirects the user to the first result.

In some cases, the phenomenon has produced competing attempts to use the same search term as a Googlebomb. As a result, the first result at any given time varies, but the targeted sites will occupy all the top slots using a normal search instead of "I'm feeling lucky". Notable instances of this include failure and miserable failure. The primary targets have been the Bush biography above (as well as another biography of Jimmy Carter on the same site), Michael Moore's website at www.michaelmoore.com, and the Senate website of Hillary Clinton.

Google has defended its algorithms as simply a reflection of the opinion on the Web, saying that it is not damaging the overall quality of its services. Google has said it expects Googlebombing to return to obscurity and has dismissed it as "cybergraffiti" and just another internet fad.

External links