Death of the Google bomb?
It
was easy: Start a website and then create a bunch of links to it, or
tie a name or a company or a team to a derogatory adjective by linking
the word to their sites. It’s called a Google bomb, and it was a
peculiarity in the search engine’s algorithmic formula that allowed
manipulation of rankings on a given search. It’s been exploited, among
other things, to link Microsoft with Satan, tag President Bush with the
assessment “miserable failure” and raise many an underviewed blog’s
Google quotient.
Google’s been aware of the problem, but has
been “reluctant” to intervene with the search engine results because,
dammit, the internet wants to be free! But for the past year
and a half, Google has been tweaking its algorithm and now it says the
bombs no longer work. That’s not stopping the Obamaniacs, however, who
have devised a plan to manipulate any Google search for “John McCain”
to turn up nine articles critical of the senator in the top slots as
chosen by Chris Bowers, a blogger for Open Left. — BC
Musical chairs
WFMY News 2 promoted two anchors this week to prime-time spots in the morning and evening broadcasts. Tanya Rivera, formerly of “Two Wants to Know,” will take the chair opposite Rosemary Plybon on “The Morning Show” starting Aug. 4. Rivera, an alumna of the University of Florida, has been at WFMY since 2002. Frank Mickens will take her place on “Two Wants to Know.” Mickens, who joined the station as the Guilford County reporter in 2003, has experience in print and broadcast that dates back to his days at the Clarion- Ledger and WAPT in Jackson, Miss. He earned his journalism degree from Syracuse University. — AK
Blogfight of the week
There’s
plenty of smack talk in the Triad blogosphere, but it generally comes
from a finite group of perpetrators, a group that, I’m afraid, includes
yours truly. But last week’s biggest dustup involved a couple outside
contenders: Sue Polinsky and Billy Jones. You may know Polinsky, AKA
Tech Mama, from her involvement with the ConvergeSouth blogging
convention, her business dealings, her volunteer work or her blog,
Sue’s Place, at www.sue.polinsky.com. Jones, who blogs as Billy the Blogging Poet at www.bloggingpoet.squarespace.com,
is also civic minded — he has a plan to alleviate the gang problems in
Greensboro and last year ran for mayor. It should be known, as well,
that he rides around town on a bicycle converted to look like an
airplane. The flap erupted after a thread at Dr. Joe Guarino’s blog, www.guarino.typepad.com,
in which he and a gallery of commenters made some disparaging comments
about a recent Action Greensboro bus trip to Charlotte.
The
controversy surrounded an insinuation by Jones that Polinsky is somehow
under the control of former Mayor Jim Melvin, who Jones refers to as
“the Bobblehead.” The melee spilled over onto Sue’s Place and got so
heated it attracted the calming influence of another blogger, Cara
Michele Forrest, who operates www.chosenfast.com.
She got into a tangential tangle with Guarino commenter keith, who is
kind of a hardass, before restoring a semblance of sanity and goodness.
If this beef lasts until ConvergeSouth in the fall, expect sore
fireworks. Or, more likely, one of those group-hug “un-lectures.” — BC
triadwatch
