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Lefties Plot GOP Google Bomb

Daily Kos seeks to send negative stories to top of rankings

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 19, 2010 10:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – Look out, GOP: You're about to get Google-bombed. Liberal activist and Daily Kos honcho Chris Bowers is targeting 98 Republican House candidates in a Google campaign ahead of November's elections. He's urging the blog's readers to find potentially damaging news stories about the candidates and help push them up Google's rankings so that undecided voters will find them. Bowers says the search engine optimization strategy is the 21st-century equivalent of handing out pamphlets.

"We’re just educating people about how to get the message out without doing something more transgressive, for the lack of a better term,” he tells Politico. SEO experts are split on how effective the strategy will be and conservative bloggers are, unsurprisingly, outraged. Some are calling for Google to exclude the Daily Kos from its rankings, while others are plotting similar campaigns against Democratic candidates.


Google says it has tweaked its algorithms to ensure candidate's pages and Wikipedia entries remain top.
Google says it has tweaked its algorithms to ensure candidate's pages and Wikipedia entries remain top.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
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I think the tactic stinks of desperation. However, I think that all’s fair in love, war, and political campaigns, and as long as there is an equal and fair playing field, there are no boundaries. - Mindy Finn, co-founder of conservative consulting firm Engage DC

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 27 comments
matthew
Oct 21, 2010 8:52 AM CDT
Is Google an evil corporation? They pay 2.4% in taxes. Their lean to the left exempts them from the scorn of the duped idiots who voted for the idiot we call Obama.
mikefichera
Oct 20, 2010 11:06 AM CDT
Smear campaign yummy.
Dumb Dumb
Oct 20, 2010 10:19 AM CDT
John Adams got it correct. Party politics is and was a dirty business. It would be in America's best interests if we could focus on the issues. That said it is business as usual.
 

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