Search Engine Bombers Target the Church of Scientology

In what has become the online equivalent of schoolyard bullies ganging up on one child, "search engine bombing," also known as "Googlebombing" or "linkbombing," has become a popular way of making a political statement on the Internet.

Dropping the Googlebomb

Basically, a Googlebomb links certain derogatory or inflammatory keywords to a webpage. For example, the anonymous folks who hate my writing on Associated Content (of which there are many) could create hyperlinks on their blogs that link the phrase "hack writer" to my Content Producer page on this site.

Thanks to the viral nature of the Internet, planting a search engine bomb like this is deceptively easy, as witnessed by the recent bombing of the Church of Scientology. If the original bomber can get enough bloggers to create the same link on their websites and blogs, the bomb is then armed and ready.

Tripping the Linkbomb

If there are a sufficient number of links to a site, it should appear as the first entry on a Google page once the keywords are entered. In the Scientology example, when the keywords "dangerous cult" are entered into the Google search engine, the first entry on the first page is a link to the Church's homepage.

It's also possible to set off what I will call a "suicide bomb" on your personal sites. Websites thrive from Internet traffic and, by strategically placing a Googlebomb with the help of thousands of your online buddies, you can increase page hits dramatically depending on the keywords you choose. It is, of course, a deceptive way of routing traffic to your site, but it is successful in many cases.

Notable Search Engine Bombs

The Church of Scientology is the latest well-known target of linkbombers. Other notable victims include the following:

"More Evil than Satan": Reportedly one of the earliest examples of linkbombing, typing this phrase would send surfers to the Microsoft Home Page. I wonder if they set up this bomb using a Macintosh.