Failure

[Buff]

Go to google and do a search for "failure"

What is the first link?

Now isn't that something else?

For the ironic part, see the second link.

[arsenal]

The guys at google definately having some fun with that.

also, look at the 3rd one

[albertGQ]

Thats some funny $hit

[Cowperson]

I sent them an e-mail asking them if they were making a political statement and asking them to reply.

We'll see if anything happens.

I could easily see some lower level guy setting things up without the top dogs knowing about it.

Cowperson

[Bill Bumface]

What about that engineering firm in about 5th spot? No where on there page is the word failure... odd.

[photon]

Just another case of sites and bloggers manipulating the results of google. Also known as google bombing.

For a LONG read on it: http://www.microcontentnews.com/arti...ooglebombs.htm

What it boils down to is Google not only searches pages for key words, they also search for pages that contain key words that link to other pages, and bump up the rank of that page based on that for those key words. That's why Google always seems to turn up good links, because other people have words associated with that link in their sites, blogs, forum posts, whatever.

In this case it was a blogger who started it:

Let's get everyone to link to http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html with the words "Miserable Failure" Our goal is to make Shrubya the top google pick.

It's fun, it's easy just Miserable Failure in your favorite web page will look like Miserable Failure

Of course by posting this I'm adding to the problem.

It's not a political statement by Google, though that they don't change it when they've changed other ones in similar situations may say something.

Craig Silverstein, Google's director for technology, says the company sees nothing wrong with the public using its search engine this way. No user is hurt, he said, because there is no clearly legitimate site for "miserable failure" being pushed aside.

Moreover, he said, Google's results were taking stock of the range of opinions that are expressed online. "We just reflect the opinion on the Web,'' he said, "for better or worse."

[Cowperson]

Originally posted by Cowperson@Feb 9 2005, 10:06 PM
I sent them an e-mail asking them if they were making a political statement and asking them to reply.

We'll see if anything happens.

I could easily see some lower level guy setting things up without the top dogs knowing about it.

Cowperson

Sitting here in my office minding my own business when Google responded to my query above:

Thank you for your note about our search results. The particular case you
refer to is the result of the dynamic nature of the internet and Google's
reliance on the web's link structure as part of our search calculation.
The order and contents of Google search results are completely automated.
No one hand picks a particular result for a given search query. Nor does
Google ever insert jokes or send messages by changing the order of
results. Occasionally, when a particular website is the subject of public
attention, other sites begin linking to it. This may elevate its
importance as gauged by our ranking software, which assigns a PageRank
value based in part on who links to a given page.

Higher ranking in Google results may lead to more awareness, which may
lead to more links and so on. One side effect of not using an editorial
viewpoint to determine the ranking of results is that anomalies like this
occasionally occur. We view such occasions as opportunities for us to
learn more about how the web works and how to improve our algorithms for
all searches in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to write to us.

Regards,
The Google Team

Comments?

Cowperson

[MarchHare]

This is over a year old, as is the result of googlebombing, as was mentioned.

I can't believe you guys are only finding out about this now.

[Agamemnon]

Originally posted by Cowperson+Feb 11 2005, 09:56 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Cowperson @ Feb 11 2005, 09:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Cowperson@Feb 9 2005, 10:06 PM
I sent them an e-mail asking them if they were making a political statement and asking them to reply.

We'll see if anything happens.

I could easily see some lower level guy setting things up without the top dogs knowing about it.

Cowperson

Sitting here in my office minding my own business when Google responded to my query above:

Thank you for your note about our search results. The particular case you
refer to is the result of the dynamic nature of the internet and Google's
reliance on the web's link structure as part of our search calculation.
The order and contents of Google search results are completely automated.
No one hand picks a particular result for a given search query. Nor does
Google ever insert jokes or send messages by changing the order of
results. Occasionally, when a particular website is the subject of public
attention, other sites begin linking to it. This may elevate its
importance as gauged by our ranking software, which assigns a PageRank
value based in part on who links to a given page.

Higher ranking in Google results may lead to more awareness, which may
lead to more links and so on. One side effect of not using an editorial
viewpoint to determine the ranking of results is that anomalies like this
occasionally occur. We view such occasions as opportunities for us to
learn more about how the web works and how to improve our algorithms for
all searches in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to write to us.

Regards,
The Google Team

Comments?

Cowperson [/b][/quote]
Makes sense to me. I'd rather not have my search engine censor web pages based on personal, political, or ideological belief. Let the software handle it. If the software can be easily manipulated, Google should probably try to rectify the situation by continuing to develop and enhance their software. It sounds as though the way it works makes it more or less impossible for them to selectively filter content.

Seems like Google's playing straight up, I don't see an issue.

[photon]

The only time I've ever seen them manually adjust the results is when there's a legal issue with the results. The whole operation clambake vs. Scientology comes to mind.

[Table 5]

Originally posted by MarchHare@Feb 11 2005, 05:07 PM
This is over a year old, as is the result of googlebombing, as was mentioned.

I can't believe you guys are only finding out about this now.

heh, no kidding. information superhighway my ass!


btw, its much more fun if you guys goto gettyimages.com and search out the word "plum".

[Agamemnon]

Originally posted by MarchHare@Feb 11 2005, 10:07 PM
This is over a year old, as is the result of googlebombing, as was mentioned.

I can't believe you guys are only finding out about this now.

I'm pretty sure most people have known about this for a while. Of course, not everyone is up to date with the latest on Google's search patterns... you'll have to forgive some.

French Military Victories and Weapons of Mass Destruction I believe were two of the big searches that started it, not sure when.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally posted by MarchHare@Feb 11 2005, 04:07 PM
I can't believe you guys are only finding out about this now.

No shi*t! I mean, come on guys! This is a quirky little thing on the google search engine, I would imagine the entire world knows about this. You are all a bunch of morons if you are now just finding out about this. Please stop dating, having family, going out, and working, it will open your eyes to a world of funny little things bored programmers put into obscure searches.

[Faid1]

Originally posted by MrMastodonFarm+Feb 11 2005, 04:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MrMastodonFarm @ Feb 11 2005, 04:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-MarchHare@Feb 11 2005, 04:07 PM
I can't believe you guys are only finding out about this now.#

No shi*t! I mean, come on guys! This is a quirky little thing on the google search engine, I would imagine the entire world knows about this. You are all a bunch of morons if you are now just finding out about this. Please stop dating, having family, going out, and working, it will open your eyes to a world of funny little things bored programmers put into obscure searches. [/b][/quote]
Shutup.

Someone in this thread even wrote into Google about this year old "issue" instead of just checking out the rest of the links underneath the Whitehouse Bio which explained it.

[calf]

Originally posted by Faid1+Feb 11 2005, 05:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Faid1 @ Feb 11 2005, 05:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

No shi*t! I mean, come on guys! This is a quirky little thing on the google search engine, I would imagine the entire world knows about this. You are all a bunch of morons if you are now just finding out about this. Please stop dating, having family, going out, and working, it will open your eyes to a world of funny little things bored programmers put into obscure searches.

Shutup.

Someone in this thread even wrote into Google about this year old "issue" instead of just checking out the rest of the links underneath the Whitehouse Bio which explained it. [/b][/quote]
The links are a couple of pages down from the first page...was it unreasonable for Cowperson to e-mail in his curiosity? I don't think so...

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally posted by MarchHare@Feb 11 2005, 02:07 PM
This is over a year old, as is the result of googlebombing, as was mentioned.

I can't believe you guys are only finding out about this now.

I did not know about it until now...............I must apologize.

I feel shame.

[calf]

this google bombing sounds like fun. I'm sure there's a way (like googlebombing!) for search results for 'jackass' or 'greedy little bas**rds' to turn up the nhlpa site

[Faid1]

Originally posted by calf@Feb 11 2005, 06:57 PM
this google bombing sounds like fun. I'm sure there's a way (like googlebombing!) for search results for 'jackass' or 'greedy little bas**rds' to turn up the nhlpa site

Lots and lots of examples here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlebombing

[Wookie]

What was the france one?

[Agamemnon]

Originally posted by Wookie@Feb 12 2005, 07:00 AM
What was the france one?

If you typed in "French Military Victories", Google suggested, "Are you looking for French Military Defeats?", as though there were no such thing as the former. Guess Google doesn't date back to Napoleon