Have we ever posted about the phrase "google-bombing"? Here's a news report.

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SAUL HANSELL, The New York Times
Earlier this year, Google started a widely used news service. Last week, it looked to some users of the Google search that the site had started to editorialize.

Anyone searching on Google for the phrase "miserable failure" was sent to the official White House biography of President Bush.

Google executives say they have no corporate opinion of the Bush presidency. Instead, the episode is another example of a form of cyber-graffiti known as "Google bombing."

It is a group prank. If enough Web pages link a certain Web page to a phrase, the Google search engine will start to associate that page with the phrase - even if, as in the case of Mr. Bush's official biography, the phrase does not occur on the destination Web site.

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Well, I have always thought there was something strange about the way Google works. For example, unless I am missing something somewhere, Wordcraft has, by far, the most extensive and cogent discussion of "epicaricacy", including being the first site to actually post where it first appeared. Yet, when you Google "epicaricacy", you get all these rehashed discussions, mostly posting the definition from Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary*. I have always thought that there was some sort of favoritism with Google.

* Look at some of those other Mrs. Byrne's words!

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Well, I have always thought there was something strange about the way Google works. For example, unless I am missing something somewhere, Wordcraft has, by far, the most extensive and cogent discussion of "epicaricacy",

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When goggle indexes it only counts one hit of a word on a page so it doesn't matter how many times we have used the word "epicaricacy" as they are all on one page it will only count it as one hit.
As for the google rankings I'm not sure how their rating system works.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

I totally agree.

Google in "World-renown expert," "Master of all he surveys," "King of Limericks," or "Britney Spears love interest" and my name doesn't come up once!

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When goggle indexes it only counts one hit of a word on a page so it doesn't matter how many times we have used the word "epicaricacy"

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My point wasn't how many times we've used the word, but that we probably have the most scholarly discussion of that word than any other site. One other site that I know has a similar discussion to ours, but they merely copied from our site.

[This message was edited by Kalleh on Tue Dec 9th, 2003 at 17:16.]

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Originally posted by Kalleh:

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When goggle indexes it only counts one hit of a word on a page so it doesn't matter how many times we have used the word "epicaricacy"

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My point wasn't how many times we've used the word, but that we probably have the most scholarly discussion of that word than any other site. One other site that I know have has a similar discussion to ours, but they merely copied from our site.

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Indeed, but how can Google, a mere algorithmic process, possibly judge the worth of a discussion? It has no way of "knowing" whether a site has discussed something in a studied and intelligent manner or simply listed the same word a thousand times. Google indexes hundreds of thousands of sites every day and has a current list of billions of pages. It would be beyond any possibility to have each of these pages read and evaluated by a human being capable of forming such a judgement.

Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life ?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off ?
Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

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Google indexes hundreds of thousands of sites every day and has a current list of billions of pages. It would be beyond any possibility to have each of these pages read and evaluated by a human being capable of forming such a judgement

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Of course you're right, Bob. Even when I wrote my reply, I questioned how they'd be able to evaluate "scholarliness." And, let's be honest, the normal Joe Blow doesn't really want "scholarliness" anyway.

That was another one of my silly posts, and I would delete it, though that would just create confusion here.