Posted on 09/17/2004 10:17:45 AM PDT by CitizenUSA
Check this out. I was attempting to find Tom Colburn's (Senate candidate--Oklahoma) web site. The first site listed on Google is for Brad Carson--Tom's Demoncat opposition. Is this another example of Google going liberal on us? Or, maybe the Demoncats have figured out how to manipulate the search engine. Any ideas?
Maybe you should try searching for Tom COBURN, as that is his name.
Thanks. I just figured that out myself. Apparently I'm not the only one to have problems with the "L." After reading a bit of Brad Carson's site, I noticed it mentions Tom Colburn--with the L--several times. Perhaps that why the search results are skewed to Carson.
Since my post I've managed to find Tom's web site:
http://www.coburnforsenate.com/
Thanks again BigB!
bttt
It is easy to manipulate google. Search for "google bombing" for more details.
Maybe this will help.
"Thank you for your note about our search results. The particular case you refer to is the result of the dynamic nature of the internet and Google's reliance on the web's link structure as part of our search calculation. The order and contents of Google search results are completely automated. No one hand picks a particular result for a given search query. Nor does Google ever insert jokes or send messages by changing the order of results. Occasionally, when a particular website is the subject of public attention, other sites begin linking to it. This may elevate its importance as gauged by our ranking software, which assigns a PageRank value based in part on who links to a given page.
Higher ranking in Google results may lead to more awareness, which may lead to more links and so on. One side effect of not using an editorial viewpoint to determine the ranking of results is that anomalies like this occasionally occur. We view such occasions as opportunities for us to learn more about how the web works and how to improve our algorithms for all searches in the future.
Thanks for taking the time to write to us.
Regards,
The Google Team"
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