Okay, try this if you want. Go to google.com, and type in “weapons of mass destruction” (without the quotation marks), and instead of hitting “enter” or “search”, hit the “I’m feeling lucky” button. What comes up may at first appear to be an ordinary “this page cannot be displayed”, but it’s not! Read it! It’s very funny.
… and the instant this thread appeared, google went DoS…
While the folks at Google do have a sense of humor, I’m fairly sure that this is the result of outside manipulation.
Since Google works on a system of ratings based on links to sites, one person will set up a page (such as the one you found) and post a link to it in his or her blog, inviting others to do the same. Once enough people have established blog links (or links from their own home pages or whatever), then the site floats to the top of the page rank list and becomes the target for the “Lucky” button.
Incidentally, try typing in “French military victories” and clicking “I’m feeling lucky”. Then click the…other link that appears. Fair and balanced satire!
tomndebb, thanks for the info. You would think I could have figured that out myself, but I was too busy laughing.
Here is their discussion of how they did it.
That was way too funny… So can someone explain how THAT happens?
Exactly the same way as explained above. If you look at the address in the address bar it is just a page that is made to look like google.
D’oh!
i heard an article on the radio today about what happens if you put in “jew”.
It SAID the first thing that came up was “Jew Watch”, an anti-semitic organization, but it appears that’s not so anymore (I just tried it) but it did come in second.
Google said they were upset by it, but understandably, would not act to censor it.
This practice is known as “Google-Bombing”.
The latest one that’s picking up steam is searching on “Waffle” , and it yielding hits for John Kerry.
More info here:
http://www.microcontentnews.com/articles/googlebombs.htm
This is awesome! Just last night it worked the other way–with Jew Watch coming up first–and thanks to a campaign to counter-bomb, it’s not first now!
This is what I posted in my journal last night, which I got in turn from someone else’s journal: http://opalcat.livejournal.com/1614431.html
Handy Hint: If you get the urge to attempt a Googlebomb, make sure everybody copies and pastes the instructions into their own blog, instead of linking back to the instructions in yours, or you’ll end up Googlebombing yourself. Because, y’know, some people forget that bit. They know who they are.
You realize that this is about the thirteenth thread on those WMDs, right?
No, I really didn’t. If I had, I wouldn’t have started this one. Sorry about that.
Don’t forget failure which actually has 3 trying for #1.
google bombs are funny
I tried Waffle, and I got some weird Japanese page as the I’m Feeling Lucky hit. The odd thing is that the URL is actual www.wattle.co.jp not www.waffle.co.jp. I’m almost afraid to enter the site.
Well, I entered the site and I’m not sure it’ll be safe for work. So I suggest waiting until you’re safely home. Though there’s nothing bad on the entry site or the first page.
Oops, I didn’t realize the board will parse URLs on the fly like that. Maybe a mod should look into breaking the links. (I’d report my own post but the stupid software doesn’t support that.)
I didn’t mean that is was set already, I just read somewhere yesterday that people are trying to get that going.