[news] reklamy johna keryego w google

melassa · 25 Maja 2004

With the Democratic presidential nomination clinched, John Kerry was bound to get Google-bombed.
An effort by conservative bloggers has pushed the candidate's campaign website to the top of the result list when the word "waffles" is typed into Google. But Kerry's campaign is trying to capitalize on the prank.

Today's the Day. The campaign has purchased Google AdWords, sponsored links that come up beside results when certain words are searched. The short links also refer to Kerry's website, but suggest users "read about President Bush's Waffles."

"When we heard people were linking the word 'waffles' with John Kerry, our thought was, 'This is ridiculous,'" said Morra Aarons, Internet grass-roots coordinator for John Kerry for President. "But our solution was to fight fire with fire."

Google-bombing has fast become a popular prank on the Web. Bloggers have found they can manipulate search results by hyperlinking unsavory labels to individual pages. The trick also works on Yahoo, Lycos and AltaVista.

The "waffles" campaign was apparently started by Pennsylvania law student Ken Jacobson on his Esoteric Diatribe blog. Bush has been bombed as well. The search "miserable failure" now brings up his official White House biography. He also was bombed last year with the phrase "dumb motherfucker," though that search now leads to a Wired News article on the subject.

The Bush campaign has not responded directly to these pranks. "Our position is that all of these actions are exercises for activists, and we are not taking any action of our own," said Scott Stanzel, Bush-Cheney '04 spokesman.

While the Republican campaign began its first Internet advertising campaign May 12, there are no plans to purchase any AdWords.

Kerry coordinator Aarons was not sure whether the Democratic candidate's camp would continue sponsoring links throughout the campaign, but said the price was marginal compared to television advertising.

But the AdWords method is catching on with liberal groups. MoveOn.org has purchased AdWords for "waffles" and "miserable failure." Sponsored links to the Kerry site also show up on searches for "miserable failure" and "George W. Bush," which Aarons said the campaign did not buy.

"That's the thing about the Internet," Aarons said. "There are all of these third-party groups and you can't keep track."

No conservative groups seem to be employing the AdWords technique, though a more supportive Google bomb has pushed the Bush bio to the top result for the query "great president."

But the AdWord strategy may have its flaws. Google and other search engines have been criticized before for not cracking down on the Google-bombing practice.

"I really think there is a church and state separation between search and advertising," said Chris Sherman, associate editor of SearchEngineWatch. "The AdWords policy has nothing to do with how the company will handle Google bombs. If it did, that would be violating a long-held conviction."

Google executives said bombing tricks don't generate revenue. The company hasn't announced any plans to stop the tricks. Sherman said if search engines do not start guarding against such pranks, it will become as much of a nuisance as e-mail spam