Manipulating Google For Vanity And For Politics

Too Much Free Time

from the Google-obsession dept

It seems some people just can’t get over their obsession with Google results. The practice of “Google bombing” – getting a bunch of people to link to a specific page with a specific phrase, so that a search on that phrase returns the page, even if the phrase has nothing to do with the actual page – is turning into a political war as people on all sides of the political spectrum are trying to associate various negative words or phrases with politicians or policies they dislike. This was sort of amusing the first time it happened, but now it just seems really childish on all sides. It certainly doesn’t do anything to impact anyone’s political beliefs. To me, it seems like the online equivalent of a writing something bad about someone on a bathroom wall. Meanwhile, though, there’s another interesting trend that is less annoying: buying ad keywords on your own name. The idea is not to influence the main Google search terms, but to have some say in pointing people to a specific site if they’re searching on your name. It also lets you know how many people are searching for you, as that will show up in your Adwords statistics. It’s becoming especially popular with freelancer or individual professionals (doctors and lawyers) where people are likely to search on their names. Apparently, it’s become quite a trend. I have no idea when this started, but the first person I heard do this was Glenn Fleishman last July. Of course, there’s a price involved – you have to pay each time someone clicks on your ad.