Mar 8, 2012 at 5:50pm ET by Danny Sullivan

As we covered last week, Google's search results for a search on "santorum" have gotten a lot cleaner recently. The change was featured on The Rachel Maddow Show last night, and Search Engine Land's coverage got a big shout-out. The clip is below, as well as an update on all things Santorum and Google. Santorum himself is finally number one, and that SafeSearch change Google made turns out not to be so safe. Maddow Covers The Santorum Shuffle "Spreading Santorum" Drops At Google is our story from last week and provides all the background about how the "Speading Santorum" site -- created as [...]

“Spreading Santorum” Drops At Google; New Site Keeps Anal Sex Definition At Number One

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 [...]

How Rick Santorum Is Making His “Google Problem” Worse

Jan 4, 2012 at 1:51pm ET by Danny Sullivan

US Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made a surprise leap ahead to practically tie Mitt Romney in yesterday's Iowa caucus results. Now people are searching to find out more about him and discovering THAT result which makes comedy show hosts like Jon Stewart giggle. But rather than blame Google (or Bing), as Santorum has in the past, much of the fault remains with his own campaign. Searching For Santorum Here's how Google Trends currently looks: The arrow shows how searches for "rick santorum" are now that second most "hot searches" happening, searches that are occurring f [...]

Santorum & Google’s Search Quality Czar Matt Cutts Makes The Colbert Report

Sep 27, 2011 at 10:11am ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

The search industry is getting a little more mainstream recognition every day, as tonight's episode of The Colbert Report picked on Google's handling of the Spreading Santorum situation. This time the target was software engineer Matt Cutts, long known to search industry insiders as head of Google's Web Spam and search quality team, he doesn't often get the same national media spotlight as Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin or Larry Page. But as the man responsible for weeding out poor quality content from Google results, Cutts made the late night news desk. First notified of his Comedy Centra [...]

Should Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem” Be Fixed?

Sep 21, 2011 at 8:00am ET by Danny Sullivan

Is Google (and Bing, by the way) not being "responsible" by failing to remove an anti-Rick Santorum web site? The Republican presidential candidate believes so, speaking out this week against an unfavorable listing for his name. But "fixing" Santorum's "Google problem" isn't as easy as it sounds. Defining Santorum For those who aren't familiar with Santorum's situation, back in 2003, the former US Senator angered gay columnist Dan Savage, not to mention some in the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community, with several anti-homosexual comments during an interview with the Associated [...]

Presidential Hopeful Santorum’s “Google Problem” Makes Daily Show

May 10, 2011 at 9:12am ET by Pamela Parker

Former Senator and likely Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum hasn't yet figured out what to do about his "Google Problem" -- a negative listing orchestrated by gay syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, which results in the association of Santorum's name with anal sex. And the search issue is getting attention from that much-watched political "fake news" show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. (The mention is around 1:46 on the clip below.) The Daily Show - Indecision 2012 - Good Luck Motherf@*kers Edition - Blather for Elephants Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Hum [...]

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