Legal Commentary

Dropping a Google Bomb on McCain

By TChris

What do you think about Google bombing John McCain?

A political blogger is using a technique known as "Google bombing" to enlist the aid of fellow partisan bloggers to boost the search engine rankings of nine news stories that reflect poorly on Republican presidential candidate John McCain. ... The articles [Chris] Bowers is using range from a story about McCain voting to filibuster a minimum wage hike to an item about the Senate passing an expanded GI bill despite opposition from McCain.

Bowers on the ethics of Google bombing:

"We're just using McCain's own words -- everything we are targeting are things McCain has done or said himself. There's no bias at all. There are no opinion pieces. They are all news pieces that quote McCain himself. Obviously, it is manipulating, but search engines are not public forums and unless you act to use them for your own benefit, your opponent's information is going to get out there. This is the sort of 'do it yourself' activism that is very much in line with the tone of this campaign," Bowers said.

If you want to play, this link will take you to the nine article links.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 22, 2008 (boomark / email).