Archive: January, 2007

Google has moved to close a hole in their ranking algorithm known as Google or Link Bombing. The technique allowed webmasters to produce results based on numerous incidents of links pointing to the same document sharing the same keyword-charged anchor-text across as wide a number of sites as possible. Once a critical mass of sites ran the link with the same anchor text, the miracles of algorithmic search would do the rest and produce a top ranking prank. Well known examples included the phrase “Miserable Failure”, “Talentless Hack”, and “Drinks for Links”.

According to a note posted by Matt Cutts yesterday afternoon to the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Google has improved on the way it analyses the link structure of the web. “Now we will typically return commentary, discussions, and articles about the Googlebombs instead,” he writes.

 

In comments to a Danny Sullivan article (Google Kills Bush’s Miserable Failure Search & Other Google Bombs) at SearchEngineLand.com, Bill Slawski points out a section of a patent application (Phrase-based indexing in an information retrieval system) written by Anna Patterson of San Jose Ca.