Google Bombing… Sorry, SEO…
From GMSV – worth a read…
The New York Times reports some liberal bloggers have embarked on a “Google bombing” campaign designed to lift negative articles about 50 or so Republican candidates to the top of the search results for those candidates’ names. The tactic involves widely linking each mention of a candidate’s name to a single article, thus raising its profile in Google’s page-ranking formula. The effort, headed by MyDD.com contributor Chris Bowers, has been labeled “unscrupulous” and “fascinatingly evil” by conservative bloggers, but Bowers says this is nothing new, noting previous Google-bombs that linked the phrases “flip flopper” with John Kerry and “miserable failure” with George Bush. His bombing, Bowers says, is actually “search engine optimization,” an important new addition to the political tool box. “There are three main differences between the campaign I started and other, similar campaigns,” wrote Bowers. “First, I did it out in the open with full transparency on my blog, using my name, and with my email in full view. Second, it is much more wide ranging, since it has multiple, simultaneous targets. Third, and most importantly, instead of targeting campaign talking points such as ‘flip flopper’ or ‘miserable failure,’ this campaign worked to only use non-partisan media reports. No talking points. No opinion columns. A bare minimum use of alternative media. In other words, this campaign works solely to push news reports made by trusted, mainstream news outlets into the foreground during the final two weeks of the campaign season.”
Links & Blinks
- Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture: John Moore gives us a peek into the corporate culture that informs the unparalleled success of the Starbucks brand.
- Smashing Magazine | modern magazine for web-designers and developers. Great stuff.
- Pennylicious | All about money.
- If you are going to leave a coffee stain, make it pretty…
- Digg this…
- Katie’s calendar is out… go get one!
Links & Blinks
- Shel says let-up on Edelman. Shel, I think people are just having too fun fun with this one to let-up just yet. I do agree though that the Edelman issue reflects broader challenges any large organization faces: first, the actions of the many will be undermined by the few (look no further than the F-H billing incident in LA); second, all organizations are challenged to get employees to live the values they aspire to – this was ulitmately about honesty and transparency; and third, we assume that organizations are very integrated – they aren’t. The smarts that exist on one team don’t necessarily flow unbounded to another. Finally, few if any of the industry organizations ethics policies have any teeth and why should they?
- Post your slides online for all to see…
- A meme tracker for tracking people… great idea!
Links & Blinks |
- Stowe on Goplan – a Basecamp competitor
- Musings on the value of social software
- New agency launches (in Second Life of course) – Crayon. Joseph Jaffe is behind the deal that has attracted some star players.
- Edelman gets socially responsible.
- Scrybe – new ajax-based organizer.
- After These Messages…
- Self Titled… a flash masterpiece…