Techmeme Found Me!

I've never had a post picked up by Techmeme, that is until today! (see screenshot below)

Miserable Failure - See-ya Googlebomb!

Looks like Google has finally been able to kill the googlebomb. I think most of us who follow web marketing trends know about the bomb. For everyone else, a googlebomb is created by an abundance of anchor text aimed at a particular webpage, for which the owner of that page had no intention of ranking. The most famous bomb, of course, is George Bush's profile ranking for the search 'miserable failure'.

For those interested in more information, Search Engine Land has a post up today that addresses the history of the technique. It's well worth the read.

And for those of us who do web marketing, take comfort that there doesn't seem to be any kind of spin-off effect. The key distinction for this algo change is that it only effects websites that don't want to rank. If your page titles or onpage content match your incoming anchor text, that's still a good thing, and rankings don't appear effected.

The only other comment I have here, is that it does seem a bit of a shame. In and of itself, googlebombing was an expression of online commentary. At one point or another, Michael Moore, Hillary Clinton, Dick Gephardt, and a host of others have ranked. Heck, I've often thought of pointing anchor text at myself, and running for miserable failure status... :-)

I do understand the reasoning, and why it's bad for Google's business, but from a web-culture perspective, I'll miss it as a form of expression. The googlebomb was cool.

Darren Barefoot: Why Do You Blog?

Are you a blogger? Can you describe why you blog? Darren Barefoot's running a session on this topic at the 2007 NV conference, and is looking for some feedback.

And then for a hoot, check out his spoof Second Life site, along with the great response from Linden Labs. You're on a roll in '07, Darren. Keep it up! :-)

[DB's feed here]

2000 Bloggers Project

Tino Buntic has produced what could be called the biggest linkbaiting project the blogosphere has seen yet. I have no clue how my picture got in the middle of it, but it's certainly an interesting approach to ramping up link popularity. Each photo is linked to the author's blog, with the list below being widely reproduced.