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Google takes 4 years to address Bush Googlebomb, 4 *days* to fix Obamabomb

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  January 30th, 2009 at 10:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

According to FoxNews.com:

It took four years for Google to address the “Google bomb” that was lobbed at former President Bush.

But it took the Internet behemoth only a few days to defuse the same attack on President Obama. …

In 2003, President Bush’s detractors successfully gamed the Google search engine by arranging to have countless Web sites link the words “miserable failure” to Bush’s official biography on the White House Web site.

The result was that when someone typed the search term “miserable failure” into the Google search box, Bush’s bio rose to the top of the search results. …


Unfortunately for Obama, “miserable failure” reverted back to his bio when he moved into the White House. The new president was also Google-bombed with the phrase “cheerful achievement.”

But this time, Google stepped in quickly, rectifying the situation in a few days, instead of four years.

The difference in time did not go unnoticed.

“You let this go on for the entire Bush administration,” a reader named w3bgrrl wrote on a Google blog. “But since you bought the White House for Obama, you don’t want your candidates harmed … And your claims not withstanding, even liberals know you’re liberal.”

It’s not exactly new news that Google is pro-Obama and anti-Bush.

Personally, I’m more interested in how much CO2 is emitted by one running of that anti-Googlebomb algorithm, given that a simple pair of Google searches could apparently boil a pot of tea.

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COMMENTS

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  • leppard

    Ill use a different webmaster.

  • leppard

    Ill use a different webmaster.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    If anyone has any updated stats, please post. Whether they’ve thrown some crumbs to Republicans as they’ve gotten bigger, I dunno. Where their loyalty lies, however, there is not a shadow of a doubt. What else would you expect from a “Big Brother” like technology company.

    Google’s givers go Democratic

    Posted 2/13/2005 11:44 PM

    Google’s givers go Democratic
    By Jim Hopkins, USA TODAY
    SAN FRANCISCO ? As it claws for greater power, the Democratic Party has found a newly rich ally in one of the fastest-growing U.S. companies: Google.
    Google employees gave $207,650 to federal candidates for last year’s elections, up from just $250 in 2000 when it was still a start-up. And 98% went to Democrats, the biggest share among top tech donors, a new USA TODAY campaign finance analysis shows.

    The online search giant’s beefier political profile reflects moves by the broader tech industry to defend itself in recent years as Washington debates Internet taxes, offshoring of jobs and other hot issues.

    Google giving is still small compared with other tech donors. At No. 1 Microsoft, workers and its political action committee gave $3.1 million last year; 60% to Democrats. Overall, 53% of the industry’s $25.9 million went to Democrats, says the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign finance.

    But Google giving could soar. The Silicon Valley company’s initial public offering last August minted scores of millionaires among its 3,000 workers, giving them more to lavish on politics. That makes Google a Capitol Hill force, with sharply different implications for the two main political parties, says Larry Noble, head of the Center for Responsive Politics.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • RJD

    to keep the Justice Department off its back. They are this decade’s Microsoft.

    • furious

      …the benefits of buying off the regulatory apparatus. Google knew that the minute they opened their doors.

      Republican Party has an outreach problem — Silicon Valley is another one of those thought-leader cultural institutions (media, entertainment, the academies) that influences the young and where the Democratic Party has a lock on the votes, money, and (with the exception of a few CEOS like John Chambers, Meg Whitman, or TJ Rodgers) influence.

      We need to work at winning some mindshare amongst the young, entrepreneurial class there, if not Bill Baker’s or Tom Campbell’s old seats. One would think a low-tax, less-regulatory platform would resonate with people whose wealth and status depend greatly upon stock options and risk-taking.

  • caconservative

    I used Google News during the last election cycle and it led in bias towards the Republican Party.

    It linked Washington Toast, New York Slime, Los Angeles Crime MSLSD alway on top of the stories.

    When there was positive Republican stories, they were buried and surfaced long after the drive by was lobbing another lie.

  • tjexcite

    The fact that the is even was/is Obama bomb there is hope. It takes a fair bit of computing knowledge to write a bot program to bomb google. Unless it was the same ones who made the Bush Bomb which would be odd but not unexpected that they went after Obama.

    Too bad there is not a bomb to take a search of “change” or “hope” then it goes to the RNC or GOP websites.

    If this program gets out it could kill Google, Any results could could be changed even more bias left than they all ready are or Ask for __?___ get porn ask for Windows and get Linux ask for democracy get nothing found ect.