A fine Google prank.Enter the word "failure" as a G.I.S. and look at the results. This was still working at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, September 13, 2005. It brings up George Bush's official biography, as does the phrase "miserable failure," or, at least it used to.
Google actually has nothing to do with it [1]other than taking no action against the Google bombing. The New York Times quotes Google: "Craig Silverstein, Google's director for technology, says the company sees nothing wrong with the public using its search engine this way. No user is hurt, he said, because there is no clearly legitimate site for "miserable failure" being pushed aside.
[1] Snopes.com tell us "How did this come about, especially since the phrase "miserable failure" appears nowhere in the President's biography? It was the result of a "Google bombing" project organized by George Johnston back at the end of October 2003, in which he used his blog to urge others to include links connecting the phrase "miserable failure" (a term used prominently by Democratic hopeful Dick Gephardt) with the President's biography in their own web sites and blogs:
Let's get everyone to link to http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html with the words "Miserable Failure." Our goal is to make Shrubya the top google pick. It's fun, it's easy just Miserable Failure in your favorite web page will look like Miserable Failure
According to Mr. Johnston's progress report, by the last week of November 2003 the Bush biography was the #2 result on Google for "miserable failure," and — after more and more netizens implemented the same link on their sites and urged others to do the same — it reached the top spot soon afterward. (A #1 ranking at Google brings the added bonus of returning the targeted site when users select the search engine's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.) "
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3 comments:
Your blog is terrific!
And I got some crap to sell you on my website www.buysomecrap.com!
Seriously, 'miserable failure' still brings up the miserable failure.
Hilarious, ironic and sadly true.
Pete
I can't believe W's *ACTUAL* biography on the White House website. The following is the *ENTIRE* bio from birth to his election. *SEVEN* sentences:
"President Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968, and then served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. President Bush received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. Following graduation, he moved back to Midland and began a career in the energy business. After working on his father’s successful 1988 Presidential campaign, President Bush assembled the group of partners who purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989. On November 8, 1994, President Bush was elected Governor of Texas. He became the first Governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive 4-year terms when he was re-elected on November 3, 1998."
With a resume this thin, why advertise it? How did this guy get elected??
Pete - I've wondered the same thing about that bio. They couldn't just not have one! Truth be told, it's not the weakest one a President ever had...but close.
How did he get elected? He didn't, actually...at least the first time.
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