Google just released a new algorithm just to remove Googlebombs the first one to go was Bush's "miserable failure". People are starting to get worried however if this will affect normal sites that just happen to get thousands of links with the same anchor text. Especially sites in a seo contest.

Thank You

Hands up all those who think all Google have done is introduce an 'Exceptions' file to their algo that lists hard coded known googlebombs? I only say this because one googlebomb I just searched for still works, whereas the famous ones don't. Not so much detecting GBs as ignoring known GBs. Early days yet though.

I was going to agree and say they have simply blocked the well known google bombs.
But it wouldn't be too hard for them to code something that compares the link anchor text with the contents of the page.

I have to agree it's been done manually. Maybe George W finally found out about it and insisted they remove it.

Do a search for 'click here' and you'll still see Adobe rank #1 without ever using the text on their page. It's the exact same principle and if the Googlebombing was being solved with something algorithmic it would be picking that up too.

If they did take care of this algorithmically we'll know in a couple of days as ranking across the board will significantly change for most sites.

Mmm... Well, maybe the "click here" could be explained by there is no good websites with "click here" content? I.e. perhaps their analysis takes in comparison if there are any other good matches.

the official word.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...oglebombs.html

As always, if you want to know something, take a peek in the horses mouth.

I think the algo may also take into consideration the time frame at which links are gained.
The bush "miserable failure" thing see the page get links very quickly over a short period of time. the adobe "click here" one would be more sustained.

Algorithm it is then. I guess I read the original post at the Google blog too fast. Then again it's not as though Google has never hidden the truth from us before.

That would make sense about why the 'click here' isn't affected. I suppose we could test the theory, by slowly linking back to George W's bio over time.

Originally Posted by vangogh

I suppose we could test the theory, by slowly linking back to George W's bio over time.

You can Van, but I've got things to do with my life

Like I need to check this green bar thing every 5 minutes.

thanks for sharring - seo contestents u in big trouble. . . it good to stay on top of the game. peace

c'mon gringo. I know you've checked that green bar at least 4 times since you posted.

Well it's about time they've countered Google Bombing but I can only suspect that this'll result in a negative impact on site rankings, and may even result in the decrease in value of anchor text for SEO purposes.

This really is great and I am not seeing any changes to my sites (which ofcourse is not a seo contest one). But I thought of checking it out.

It's going to be interesting in the coming days as the seo community starts to check some search results and see what they can find. This will probably affect pages more than those that were Googlebombed.

And of course this all still works in the other major search engines. We just call it linkbombing there instead of Googlebombing.

Yahoo bombing? Does anyone still use them?

Yahwho?

Originally Posted by vangogh

I have to agree it's been done manually. Maybe George W finally found out about it and insisted they remove it.

Do a search for 'click here' and you'll still see Adobe rank #1 without ever using the text on their page. It's the exact same principle and if the Googlebombing was being solved with something algorithmic it would be picking that up too.

If they did take care of this algorithmically we'll know in a couple of days as ranking across the board will significantly change for most sites.

If google removed rankings just because the text wasn't on the page this would bewould sad webmaster. I rank for many phrases that do not appear on my page.

It's more than just whether or not the words appear on the page. There are still many examples of sites ranking well fir terms that appear nowhere on the page. Try 'click here' as a search, which should lead you to a page on the Adobe site without those words on the page.

Google is using some other algorithmic magic to identify when they think Googlebombing has occurred. I suspect there will be sites that get caught in the new algorithm tweaks and losing rank, but this isn't meant to affect everyone who ranks fro text not found on the page.

Originally Posted by vangogh

Google is using some other algorithmic magic to identify when they think Googlebombing has occurred. I suspect there will be sites that get caught in the new algorithm tweaks and losing rank, but this isn't meant to affect everyone who ranks fro text not found on the page.

I think you're right about how things probably work inside Google. But it would improve their search in general if they gave a less weight to works that aren't on the page. If somebody searches for "click here" better results would probably be download.com and sites advising people not to anchor any text around "click here" ...

It's simply another step in Googles evolution away from the heavy reliance their algo places (placed) on anchor text.
It has been developing for a couple of years now (Feb 2004 was the first indications from my observations) and it will continue to evolve.