Microsoft – “More evil than satan himself,” 1999 Google-Bomb
Source – https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2bce/4885f4d27923acc283af760027cec94ccbdf.pdf
With the ever expanding internet, Information Retrieval has become one of the core components of the World Wide Web. Every user demands quick and accurate search results. Successful implementation of quick and accurate searching algorithms is the key deciding factor between successful companies and their competitors. However, manipulation of IR algorithms – PageRank, Link Analysis, etc. – to artificially inflate ranking of specific documents can cost the search companies a huge loss in their credibility to provide accurate results. The paper highlights one of the techniques used in adversarial IR – Google-Bombing – along with background information and some past examples. It also provides methods for “diffusing” a Google-Bomb.
According to the paper, “A Google-bomb is the result of an intentional set of actions whereby a target page is linked to by many different pages with the same link text, or key phrase, thereby associating the target with the key phrase in Google’s PageRank algorithm”. Lets understand the above statement by using the example below:
Here the key phrase used is “more evil than satan himself”. Now, all the web pages which included the key phrase (the Linker Pages) had a link pointing towards the microsoft homepage (the Target page), thereby increasing the PageRank value of the Microsoft home page in Google’s PageRank algorithm for the key phrase. In terms of link analysis, we can say that Microsoft’s homepage got the highest authority score as it had so many Linker pages pointing to it, hence, ranking first for the above query in google search results. It is interesting to note that the Target Page is left untouched while designing the Google-Bomb.
The above paper also provides some of the key techniques that can be implemented for “diffusing” a Google-bomb. This includes “Linker Reputability,” where the Linker pages are given a default reputability or “Link text analysis,” where the target page is searched for words in the query. To conclude, Google-bomb and other adversarial IR phenomenon highlight the weaknesses in the search algorithms (such as PageRank) and open the doors for their improvement.