Political Google Bombs

Danger! Political Google bombs are the latest danger in the search warfare. And the United States are the battlefield where a Republican smear campaign tentatively named Google Bombing The Election is unfolding. "The utilization of Google Adwords and simultaneous, widespread embedded hyperlinks in order to drive as many voters as possible toward the most damning, non-partisan article written on the Republican candidate in seventy key US Senate and House races. The campaign will run from Tuesday, October 24th until Tuesday, November 7th," stated Chris Bowers of the blog MyDD (Direct Democracy).

There are precedents for the Google Bombing The Election campaign. And "miserable failure" is perhaps the one that got the most focus, the two words being associated by Google with the current US President George W. Bush. Now the Democrats are going to manipulate the Google search engine to smear the 70 Republican candidates for the US Congress.

"However, believe it or not, in this case, a Googlebomb could actually have an impact. Think about it. Who would be doing a Google Search on a particular candidate in the final days of a campaign? Probably an independent voter who is trying to get more information about a candidate. And, if the first article he runs across is a brutal hit piece, well, that could be the information that helps him make up his mind. Would it play out that way in every case? No, but in big districts, if there's particularly damaging information out there, a Googlebomb could have the potential to sway hundreds of voters," stated John Hawkins from the Right Wing News.

In Hawkins' opinion, republicans should fight fire with fire and debut their own smear campaign as disarming a Google Bomb is a futile attempt. With this in mind, Hawkins is even delivering a list of key races for Republican websites and blogs to Googlebomb.