Feb 29, 2012 at 2:12am ET by Danny Sullivan

As Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum loses two primary races to rival Mitt Romney, perhaps he can console himself with, ironically, another loss. Spreading Santorum, the page defining "santorum" as a by-product of anal sex, has finally dropped from the top results on Google. The related anti-Santorum blog, however, remains. And a page from Urban Dictionary keeps the definition alive, more explicit than before. Santorum: The Definition Page The page at SpreadingSantorum.com, created by columnist Dan Savage as a protest against Santorum's views about homosexuality, has maintain [...]

Bing & Google: “Spreading Romney” Ranking Tops For “Romney” Is Normal

Feb 14, 2012 at 12:37pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Bing and Google have weighed in on the amazing rise in less than a month of the Spreading Romney site to the first page of their results for a search on "romney." That's apparently business as usual. Prepare for further "Spreading" sites for other candidates to rank as well? Perhaps, but without some Rachel Maddow-like mentions, they might not get there. Spreading Romney's Remarkable Rise My earlier story, Now, Mitt Romney Has A Santorum-Like Bing & Google Problem, explains how the Spreading Romney site created by Jack Shepler skyrocketed to the first page of Google's listings within [...]

Now, Mitt Romney Has A Santorum-Like Bing & Google Problem

Feb 10, 2012 at 1:36pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Perhaps Google may finally have to figure out a "fix" for Rick Santorum's "Google Problem," now that an anti-Romney site is making it appear that anyone can rank any protest page for any politician's name. Bing has the same problem, but no one ever seems to care about that. Spreading Romney I was pretty surprised to discover the "Spreading Romney" site appearing in the top results on Google and Bing in a search for "romney" that I did today. I don't recall seeing it recently, so it appears to be a new gain. Here it is on Google, as the ninth regular listing: I've also seen it as high a [...]

Why Does Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine Hate Rick Santorum?

Feb 8, 2012 at 12:14pm ET by Danny Sullivan

US presidential candidate Rick Santorum pulled off a surprise last night, winning caucuses and primaries in three states. So what's with Bing listing an anti-Santorum web site first in its results in a search for his last name? Does Microsoft have some type of liberal agenda! Wait, you didn't realize Rick Santorum has a "Bing problem" that's exactly the same as his well-documented "Google problem," where a search for "santorum" lists a web page defining that word as the by-product of anal sex above Santorum's official web site? He does. In fact, Santorum's had his Bing problem for months [...]

For “Define An English Person,” Google Suggests The C-Word

Dec 22, 2011 at 4:45pm ET by Danny Sullivan

I've seen some weird Google results in my time, but this one is pretty strange. Search for "define an english person" or some related queries, and Google brings up the Wikipedia page about the C-word in response. As spotted by Search Engine Roundtable, people were asking in Google's help forums why various searches related to defining English people returned the Wikipedia page about the C-word, as shown below: The screenshot shows Google listing the Wikipedia page first in a search for define english person. It also lists that page first or in the first page of results for related sear [...]

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