Politically charged Google

2005
09.17

Here is some fun for you:

1. Load a Google homepage in a new browser/tab
2. Type the word “Failure” and click.. I’m Feeling Lucky
3. Have a laugh
4. Return back to Google page
5. Retype the word “Miserable Failure” and click I’m Feeling Lucky
6. Have a laugh

[DO NOT CONTINUE READING BELOW THIS LINE UNLESS YOU HAVE DONE THE ABOVE, IT WON'T BE "FUN" ANYMORE]

Ok Bush’s haters, you have had some fun. That’s if you click “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. But if you have clicked the “Search” button instead, you will see that Moore-I’m-such-a-big-fat-bias-liar’s site is second to the list in both searches.

Here is what Google’s has to say about this recent web phenomenon to counter any political backlash:

If you do a Google search on the word [failure] or the phrase [miserable failure], the top result is currently the White House’s official biographical page for President Bush. We’ve received some complaints recently from users who assume that this reflects a political bias on our part. I’d like to explain how these results come up in order to allay these concerns.

Google’s search results are generated by computer programs that rank web pages in large part by examining the number and relative popularity of the sites that link to them. By using a practice called googlebombing, however, determined pranksters can occasionally produce odd results. In this case, a number of webmasters use the phrases [failure] and [miserable failure] to describe and link to President Bush’s website, thus pushing it to the top of searches for those phrases. We don’t condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we’re also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up. Pranks like this may be distracting to some, but they don’t affect the overall quality of our search service, whose objectivity, as always, remains the core of our mission.

One Response to “Politically charged Google”

  1. PK says:

    Ha Ha… thats hilarious!!!

    But even words like: George, White, Bush, House, W, Clinton etc etc etc lead to the “White House” page when you hit I’m fealing lucky!

    But here’s a good one… Type the letter “G” in Google Search and hit “I’m feeling lucky”… where does it go!!!? Hmm… interesting huh!?

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