The latest prank making the rounds in the weblog world is an effort to ensure that a Google search on “miserable failure” turns up pages on George Bush (See Newsday). So far, it seems to be working rather well.
I think I can credibly claim to have functional sense of humor, but I just don’t see much funny about this particular joke. All too often, people delude themselves into thinking that if they keep repeating a falsehood over and over again, it will come true: and here we see that philosophy taken to its logical conclusion. Nevermind argument and reason: let’s just say it’s true, and that’s sufficient.
There is something fundamentally wrong about weblogs being used to such a purpose: in a medium which allows anyone to express their own ideas and logic, this isn’t an argument: it’s just a rude noise. Using your weblog to hack Google like this is like using a master’s paintbrush to scrawl obscene graphiti on the bathroom wall. Sure, you can do it, but aren’t there better uses for the instrument?
And yes, I do find the very nature of the hack objectionable: Google is a big corporate entity and I’m just a fellow with an odd weblog directory, but they are engaged in the same enterprise as I am: mapping the territory of the Internet. They do it for profit, I do it for fun, but the task is the same. So I feel something of a shared offense to see their system gamed, just as mine has been. If you’re going to act like a thirteen-year-old coughing “bullsh*t!” to drown out an argument he doesn’t like, that’s fine, but would it be too much to ask that you do it in some way that doesn’t require you to mess with other people’s stuff?
And ultimately, can’t you make any better argument than this to prove your point? Or more precisely: can’t you make any actual argument at all?
Update: This is a nonpartisan gripe, by the way. This and this are equally stupid as the original Google-bomb.
Update with second thoughts: I take that back. The sites above actually contain arguments which at least attempt to prove their point, which lends far more credibility to the entire exercise, so I withdraw my snipe at them…