Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: Temptations

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Temptations

As I've mentioned before, I generally don't like Googlebombing. It seems to go against the spirit of a system that works because, on the whole, it's not manipulated.

Still, over at Letters of Marque, Heidi's got a googlebombing project going to misdirect links to Brian Leiter. I think it's a superlative idea for exactly the opposite reason they do: they think he's a cool fellow, while I think he's insufferable. I'm tempted, I really am. And while I'm not putting their link up myself, if you feel like doing so, I'd not complain at all.

Posted by Anthony on January 4, 2004 5:22 PM | Permalink

Comments

Sorry, you shot yourself in the foot with your post against Googlebombing, if you expect me to join the Leiter Project. ;-) I don't regret my participation in the "Miserable Failure" project (though based in part on your argument, I don't know if I'd participate in it again, if I had it all to do over again), because of the relative unlikelihood that many folks would be searching Google for that particular phrase (unless they were participating in the project and wanted to keep tabs on its success). But searching on Brian Leiter's name is something I'd expect to happen much more frequently than searching for "miserable failure" (after all, Leiter is the proprietor of both "The Philosophical Gourmet Report" and a set of law school rankings which are considered to be quite useful resources on the Web, as well as being a fairly prominent law and philosophy prof in his own right). So as amusing as I find the project (and as much as I like Glorfindel of Gondalin, which I've also blogrolled), I'm giving this one a pass. Besides, Leiter and Nathan Newman are the only "non-student" blawgs that are worth reading, IMHO (and Leiter more for the philosophy content, which I'm more interested in than the law content).

Posted by: Len Cleavelin | January 5, 2004 2:12 PM

Yeah, I know... ethically I just can't make myself do it. But I really find Leiter to be too pompous for prime time, so it's tempting.

Posted by: A. Rickey | January 5, 2004 2:16 PM

Wow, two things we agree on in one post! (Displeasure for google-bombing and Leiter's insufferability)

Posted by: Unlearned Hand | January 5, 2004 9:49 PM

Ah, Unlearned Hand, I note that not only have you not linked to the Googlebomb, you still don't link to me... ;) Still... such agreement between our two positions is surely a frightening worry. 2004 starts out an odd year indeed.

Posted by: A. Rickey | January 5, 2004 11:48 PM

Oh, sorry! I don't know why you're not on my blogroll (well, I do... it's because I just redesigned the blog and forgot to put you on there). I'll go fix that.

Posted by: Unlearned Hand | January 6, 2004 12:46 PM

Leiter's a prick. Oh, and Google is heavily manipulated by all sorts of folks. Advertisers and entrepreneurs who understand Googlebombing have been doing it for years.

Posted by: Marc | January 8, 2004 3:08 PM

Leiter's a prick. Oh, and Google is heavily manipulated by all sorts of folks. Advertisers and entrepreneurs who understand Googlebombing have been doing it for years.

Posted by: Marc | January 8, 2004 3:10 PM

Yep, heavily and deeply manipulated already by your beloved corporations, dude. Trust me, I work at a company that specializes in SEO (search engine optimization). At least Googlebombing is entertaining.

Posted by: tPA | January 8, 2004 7:16 PM

Don't get me wrong: I have no problem with search engine optimisation, which properly done isn't manipulation at all. I used to do it myself, and if 'manipulation' means setting things up so that your client, who is a seller of 'X', is the number one hit for searches about 'X', I have no great problem. Most commercial SEO projects fit this bill and are, for the most part, helpful. My trouble is when you have a search engine posting that lists guides people searching for one term to a different and completely non-responsive (even if cute) post. That's unhelpful.

Posted by: A. Rickey | January 8, 2004 10:07 PM

On the list of interesting uses of the google bomb, I direct you to a copyright infringer who is possibly getting his ass handed to him: http://www.sourbob.com/archives/000404.html.

Posted by: Paul Gutman | January 11, 2004 1:43 PM

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