Sarkozy sufre una campaña de 'Google Bombing'

El presidente francés, Nicolas Sarkozy, está sufriendo la sorna de muchos en Internet. Desde hace unos días, cuando se escribe una frase ofensiva relativa a su anatomía en la versión francesa de Google, el primer resultado que devuelve es el de la página oficial del mandatario galo. Es lo que se conoce como un ataque de Google Bombing.

Al escribir las palabras "trou du cul du web" (algo así como el agujero del culo de la Web, en francés) y en ese orden, Google devuelve la dirección de la web oficial del Presidente. El resultado está provocando una gran polémica (y diversión entre los enemigos de Sarkozy) en Francia.

Aunque se desconoce quién está detrás de esta campaña, al menos se conoce cómo se ha conseguido. La técnica usada para que, al poner esa frase, aparezca en primer lugar un sitio que no tiene nada que ver con ella se conoce como Google Bombing, que se aprovecha de la forma de trabajar del buscador.

Los resultados de Google (y buena parte de su éxito) se basan en un algoritmo que ordena las páginas web teniendo en cuenta (entre otros elementos) la relativa popularidad de los sitios que señalan hacia cada página. En el caso concreto del presidente francés, una gran cantidad de webmasters ha escrito la frase y han enlazado al sitio oficial.

Google, neutral

Los responsables del buscador en Francia emitieron un breve comunicado donde, tras explicar cómo funciona esta técnica de adulteración de sus resultados y rechazar su uso, dijeron que no harían nada al respecto. "No nos entusiasma nada la idea de modificar manualmente nuestros resultados para impedir que tales informaciones aparezcan".

Las Google bomb no son nuevas. La primera vez que se habló de esta técnica fue en 2001. Entre sus víctimas han estado el anterior presidente de Estados Unidos, George W. Bush, o la SGAE en España. Google introdujo algunos cambios en su algoritmo para evitar esta práctica pero, como se puede comprobar ahora, no lo ha conseguido. Lo que si logró el cambio, realizado en 2006, es reducir la duración del ataque que apenas aguanta unos días... a no ser que nuevos webmasters franceses se unan a la broma.

Hace unas semanas informábamos de un ataque similar a Obama

Vía Público

Google bombing al Presidente Obama

"Worst failure ever", when placed into Google as a search term, takes you to, as the first result, President Obama's page at the White House site. This really seems a little harsh given that he's only been in office 6 months but then that's the political game for you. Mockery of one's opponents is not just allowed but expected.

The technique used to do this is known as "Google Bombing". It uses a trick in the system to associate a particular page with a particular phrase and it's at the heart of the way that Google itself works. As an example, if we link to the President's page with the phrase "worst ever failure" then Google will associate the page we've linked to, the President's one, with the phrase "worst ever failure". Essentially what has been happening over the last couple of days is that hundreds, if not thousands, of Republican websites have been linking in this manner. In fact, there are two phrases that appear to work "worst failure ever" and "worst ever failure". This thus makes Google think that the President's page is very important indeed for the phrase "worst ever failure" and of "worst failure ever", so much so that it is the first result for either.

The thing is though, this form of Google Bombing is supposed to no longer be possible. Your humble reporter was the instigator of an earlier Google Bomb about a British politician (you can find it halfway down this page of bombs, it's the one that associates the word "f***wit" with the Deputy Prime Minister of the day, although it has to be said that it wasn't done for the reason given there. John Prescott had decided that the way to solve a shortage of housing was to knock houses down, activity worthy of the accolade.) and as a result of that and several others of the same vintage the Google algorithm was supposedly changed. The use of such anchor text would only work if the anchor text actually appeared on the target page. Thus using Britney Spears as anchor text to point to a page mentioning Britney Spears would work, "worst ever failure" to a page that did not have that phrase on it would not.

However, the success of this attempt to link the phrase "worst failure ever" with the President's page would seem to indicate that the algorithm was not changed in this manner: indeed, it makes it likely that the failure of previously successful Google Bombs was to do with manual tweaking of the search results rather than a systemic change. Given that it is currently Sunday, expect the result to disappear tomorrow, when Google all get back into the office. Until then, enjoy: whether you think that the description of the President is accurate or not is one thing, but it's still possible to enjoy the mischief making either way, no?

Artículo de Tim Worstall en examiner.com