John McCain’s Google Bomb

Jun 23, 2008 at 8:48am ET by Barry Schwartz

Chris Bowers is trying to push in certain articles into the Google search results for a search on [john mccain]. His goal is to “Google Bomb” these articles into the search results before Labor Day. ComputerWorld has a write up on his efforts. But as Danny described in the past, this type of Google Bomb is likely something that Google cannot fix.

There are nine articles Bowers is trying to Google Bomb to the top of the Google search results. Here is a listing of them and where they currently rank now for searches on both [john mccain] and [mccain].

(1) John McCain Votes to Filibuster Minimum Wage Hike : 34th result for [john mccain] and 33rd result for [mccain].

(2) McCain economic policy shaped by lobbyist : 77th result for [john mccain] and 66th result for [mccain].

(3) Bush, McCain plug Social Security : 104th result for [john mccain] and 34th result for [mccain].

(4) McCain blasts Obama’s and Clinton’s attacks on NAFTA : not found for [john mccain] and 44th result for [mccain].

(5) McCain in NH: Would Be “Fine” To Keep Troops in Iraq for “A Hundred Years” : 21st result for [john mccain] and 85th result for [mccain].

(6) McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion : 42nd result for [john mccain] and not found for [mccain].

(7) Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition : 62nd result for [john mccain] and 39th result for [mccain].

(8) McCain says overturn the law that legalized abortion : not found for [john mccain] and not found for [mccain].

(9) McCain Defends Bush’s Iraq Strategy : 27th result for [john mccain] and 27th result for [mccain].

Please understand that for all searches I had personalized search off. Also note that Google’s search results are frequently changing in placement for many reasons. In this case, relevant results for John McCain are constantly being included in Google’s index, which may change placement for these results. Plus, as news sites add more stories about the same individual, Google may remove or indent some of those results.

Having said that, Google has been working to address the Google Bomb issue. In the classic George Bush example, the word ‘failure’ was not on the page. But in these cases, John McCain’s name is on the page – so it will be hard for Google to drop out these results in a Google Bomb.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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