Bush no longer 'miserable failure' at Google

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) says it updated its search algorithms to prevent Google bombs.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Googlebomb refers to a practice, or prank, whereby many sites link to a certain web page under certain words. By mass linking the web site under (a usually obscure) term, the linkers take advantage of Google's search algorithm and affect the results accordingly.

While most Googlebombs are obscure, there were some famous ones. The most famous Google Bombing was in 2003, when a Google search for 'miserable failure' returned as the number one search result President Bush's biography on the White House page. This wasn't left unanswered, and at times different Democrats were the No. 1 search result for the same term. (By the way, another famous Google bomb was when the term 'waffle' returned John Kerry's website.)

Well, now Google announced it has changed its search algorithm to address such Googlebombs pranks. Googlebomb fixing won't be done manually, Google said, but automatically.

In its announcement, Google said people thought the Googlebombs results meant it was Google's opinion. I'd assume that fixing it now isn't an opinion either. Regardless, I find this whole issue fascinating as it points out to Google's immense influence on our lives, more than any other site. At the same time, our own individual presence on the web is growing with blogs and social networks, and these (we) are affecting Google results as well. This symbiosis is definitely something worth studying.