Google Bombing
Etymology
Coined around 2001 (attributed to Adam Mathes), the tactic exploited how early Google weighted the anchor text of incoming links. The famous 2003–2004 campaign tying “miserable failure” to a presidential biography showed its reach. Google later adjusted its algorithm to defuse the best-known bombs.
noun · /GOO-guhl bom-ing/
Coordinating links so that a search for a chosen phrase returns a specific, often mocking, page.
What it names
The deliberate gaming of search rankings to hijack what a query returns.
Example
Activists google-bombed the executive’s name so searches surfaced the scandal report first.
Related idea
Google bombing manipulates search results from outside, whereas a content farm games rankings by mass-producing pages; both treat the algorithm as a lever.
See also