In 2001, Adam Mathes coined the term "Google bombing" and
explained how the ranking of a given site in search results returned by Google
can be influenced: Due to the way that Google's algorithm works, a website will
be ranked higher if the sites that link to that page all use consistent text.
Links & Law has reported about Googlebombing in the past. At the end of last
year the search for "miserable fuilure" brought up the biography of the
president on the White House website, see
Update 12).
This month the first Iranian blogopshere's Google bombing has
been successfull. Thanks to efforts by thousands of Iranian bloggers, the search
for "arabian gulf" resulted in the following search result:
"The
Gulf You Are Looking For Does Not Exist. Try Persian Gulf.
The gulf you are looking for is unavailable. No body of water by that name has
ever existed. The correct name is Persian Gulf, which always has been, and will
always remain, Persian."
The googlebombing was done because of National Geographic's
recently published Eighth Edition Atlas of the World. In the atlas both a
primary name, "Persian Gulf", and an alternative secondary name, (Arabian Gulf),
is used for the body of water situated between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
Iran insists on calling the waters the "Persian Gulf" and banned National
Geographic reporters and sales of the magazine until it corrects the atlas.
National Geographic reacted with a
press release about the issue.