48 MAXIMUMPC APRIL 2004
sites suddenly added links to your web
page, your PageRank score would change
even though Google hasn’t registered
a change to your site in its cache. This
means that your web page’s PageRank
is more dependent upon other sites’
content than your own. Similarly, if those
thousand sites are all tiny blogs, your
PageRank might not change as much had
you received a single link from another
site with a high ranking, like CNN. This
guarantees the most relevant as well as
the freshest possible content at any given
time, while the summary gives you a
preview of each search result.‘Miserable Failure’ and
Other Pranks
Cracking PageRank is a pastime for hackers
as well as those interested in web traffic
and/or making money without paying
for advertising. The underground term
“Google bomb” refers to the rigged results
that occur when thousands of webmasters
all agree to link to one site, image, or file
in relation to a term to make a point. For
example, a left-wing political group of
bloggers linked George W. Bush to the
term “miserable failure” by including the
term “miserable failure” on their sites with
a link to Whitehouse.gov or pages about
George Bush. Because PageRank counts
links to a similar term as “votes,” it is
possible to stuff the ballot box—if a large
enough group decides to include the same
term and link on multiple web sites.
Similarly, the Church of Scientology was
accused of Google bombing when it created
a network of sites that all interlinked terms,
elevating its PageRank score whenever
the word “scientology” was searched for.
Anti-Scientology groups quickly retaliated
with loads of links to negative sites.
Interestingly, Google claims that both
results are valid and in many ways are truly
democratic because someone searching
for “Scientology” would see a selection of
information both pro and con.
Even more interesting, Google sees
itself as combining the best of two
worlds: freshly indexed and ranked
democratic results on one side, and paid
advertisements that helpfully connect the
buyer to related online wares on the other.
No matter how you slice it, however,
PageRank, with its instantaneous, accurate
results, gives Google an unparalleled level
of Internet credibility. It also provides the
power for what is clearly the world’s best
search engine. nThe term and practice of Google bombing
was started by blogger Adam Mathes as a
high-tech prank on his friend Andy Pressman.
Mathes urged scores of people to put the fol-
lowing line of HTML code on their blogs and
web sites:
Andy <a href=”http://www.ohmessylife.c
om”>”talentless hack”</a>Pressman. As a
result, Andy Pressman came up as the lead
result whenever the term “talentless hack”
was searched. Google has since tweaked the
algorithm to remove poor Pressman, but here
are some other classic bombs:Weapons of Mass Destruction
Links to a special 404 error page that
reads “cannot find weapons of mass
destruction” ( http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder
.co.uk/ ).Unelectable
Brings you the biography of George
W. Bush.French Military Victories
Hit the “I’m Feeling lucky” button
to see it ask “Did you Mean French
Military Defeats?”More Evil than Satan
Search to bring up Microsoft’s web
site.Miserable Failure
Originally the term conjured up just
George W. Bush, but subsequent
counter bombs have it also resulting
in Michael Moore, Jimmy Carter, and
Hillary Clinton. Inside Out
The 5 Greatest Google Bombs of All Time
Is there an easy way to refine
Google search results without
having to become a Boolean
master?
It’s all about the quotes. Putting
“Bill Gates” in quotes tells Google
you mean business. That’s the fast-
est way to narrow a search down to
a very specific phrase or spelling.
Conversely, using a minus symbol
in front of a word will exclude it
from a query. Like “-Macintosh.”
For more on the art of search
refinement, try: http://www.google.com/
help/faq.html#narrow.How can I find out who is link-
ing to my site, since PageRank
uses that info to rank my web
site?
Easy. Type in LINK:
WWW. YOURURLHERE .COM and
Google will show you who is point-
ing to your web site. As an exam-
ple, link:www.maximumpc.com will
show you who’s linking to the best
tech magazine in the universe.I recently went to France and
when I fired up my laptop and
did a Google search, the results
were in French. What gives?
Google is definitely smarter than
the average bear when it comes to
anticipating your search needs. It
saw your connection was French
and automatically changed coun-
tries for you. To truly go global,
try setting up your own language
preferences at http://www.google.com/
preferences?hl=en. Go to
http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en
to see other language sites Google
has around the globe.Can I really make cash hosting
Google ads on my web site?
Depends on your overall site traf-
fic and one very important other
item—the click-worthiness of
your audience. Google ads are
based on a CPC, or cost-per-click,
basis. For more information,
try: http://www.google.com/adsense/
faq#payments1How To Search Better
...And other frequently asked questions