Google Bombing
In our homework, we were asked how, if we added three web pages, it would affect the authority and hub votes. An interesting phenomenon that appeared is the exponential change that happened when the numbers were added to each other. With the simple addition of a couple of ties changed the votes completely. Although this example was extremely simplified, we got to see how an addition of a couple of votes manipulated the entire system. If it’s this simple in this set up of a system, has this been implemented in actuality?
The term “google bombing” came when people started to look into Google’s algorithm of PageRank. Google uses this to tell what search query would be most significant and help users to search for data that they need. An certain factor of this algorithm looks at the fact that it looks at other pages reference certain pages. So the more a page is reference, the higher its Pagerank; the higher the Pagerank the higher it shows up on the search system. This system has worked quite well for Google, but there actually have been times when this system has been used.
Google bombs are times when people manipulate the system so that search query’s would bring up another page. One humorous way was when you google “French army victories” it would give no results and ask if you meant “French army defeats.” Previously Google would let these “bombs” just slide. Many times google bombing has been used for humor, but there are times when these attacks would have malicious intent. Many famous or infamous people have been the target of these bombs. An example was when, once you could google “terrorist sympathizer” and Bill O’Reilly would appear. What he said, whether or not he defended terrorists, is up to the individual’s decision. But when these attacks began to invade into google’s system, they began to crack down on these “bombs.”
Despite these incidences, it was fascinating seeing our simplified homework problem brought into real life examples! Although it is possible to manipulate Pagerank in the proper long term way, it’s impressive how people managed to find ways to twist the system. Makes me wonder, what if someone used a “google bomb” that has never been found and managed to squeeze through any security checks. If they succeeded, how did it impact the world wide web today?
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~pete5/ir_paper.pdf