GOOGLE: INSULTS OF OUR EFFORTS IN IRAQ: SEE FOR YOURSELF

e-mail ^ | 7-6-03 | RaceBannon

[RaceBannon]

Someone used their keyword search option for their web page in a insulting way to our nation, something that only a democrat would do.

Go to GOOGLE, type in

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Click on IM FEELING LUCKY

[RaceBannon]

These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed The weapons you are looking for are currently unavailable. The country might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your weapons inspectors mandate.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

Click the Regime change button, or try again later.

If you are George Bush and typed the country's name in the address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly. (IRAQ).

To check your weapons inspector settings, click the UN menu, and then click Weapons Inspector Options. On the Security Council tab, click Consensus. The settings should match those provided by your government or NATO. If the Security Council has enabled it, The United States of America can examine your country and automatically discover Weapons of Mass Destruction. If you would like to use the CIA to try and discover them, click Detect weapons Some countries require 128 thousand troops to liberate them. Click the Panic menu and then click About US foreign policy to determine what regime they will install. If you are an Old European Country trying to protect your interests, make sure your options are left wide open as long as possible. Click the Tools menu, and then click on League of Nations. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Head in the Sand section and check settings for your exports to Iraq. Click the Bomb button if you are Donald Rumsfeld.

Cannot find weapons or CIA Error Iraqi Explorer A.R.Cox 2003

[wysiwyg]

If you are an Old European Country trying to protect your interests, make sure your options are left wide open as long as possible. Click the Tools menu, and then click on League of Nations. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Head in the Sand section and check settings for your exports to Iraq.

Pretty funny, IMO.

[grania]

1. This has been posted before.

2. Lighten up. It's funny.

[kcordell]

I wonder how many people thought this was a genuine error page without reading it first?

[pcx99]

LOL The same guy did a NYT error page. :)

http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/blair.html

[rhombus]

Who the heck reads "genuine error pages"? Move on, nothing to see here.

[hunter112]

My question is this: How can we play this game? Can we get Google to pop up our funny page, by giving it massive amounts of visits? I'd like to see us find a way to do that to the Internet Presidential Candidate--Howard Dean.

[Prodigal Son]

Can we get Google to pop up our funny page, by giving it massive amounts of visits?

It's all got to do with understanding the criteria Google uses to index and rank sites.

It could be as simple as the fact that his "Keywords" metatag has "weapons of mass destruction" (which it does). The other top hits for that same phrase do not have metatags containing "wmd". He's got that phrase as a key word and then the words are repeated in the body of the html document.

Plus, I assume his base site- http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/about.htm is already indexed by Google. By linking this WMD error page to a page that Google already indexes he has increased the new page's chances of getting indexed highly. Those three things combined with the fact that competing pages have not followed these simple guides have resulted in him getting a high rank. If you type in "iraq weapons of mass destruction" he gets a number three.

I've achieved Google number ones for clients and my self. It takes a bit of forethought when a site is designed and a little persistence, but it can be done fairly easily.

[hemogoblin]

A pompous liberal guy at work just sent me this. So I replied with this, a link everyone should have bookmarked:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/crisis_in_the_gulf/texts_and_transcripts/236858.stm

[rs79bm]

Actually I thought it was kind of funny.

[mhking]

Humor is a good thing.

[Eagle Eye]

But humor on FR is verbotten if it doesn't include an unflattering or vulgar photo of a liberal.

Unsanctioned humor that may be directed towards conservatives or conservative icons is not allowed.

[mhking]

Unsanctioned humor that may be directed towards conservatives or conservative icons is not allowed.

Being able to laugh at one's self once in a while is even more healthy than Libs can imagine... that's one of the good things 'round here...

[MaxPlus305]

Maybe you should boycott Google to protest their evil attempt at humor. Have fun searching the net with...Lycos.


BTW, I see the "french military victories" lucky search is back up. That was much funnier.

[FreeTheHostages]

Race, I agree with Prodigal: the fault is not google's. Some geek has taken advantage of how Google sorts "i'm feeling lucky." it takes you to a page on a different website, not a google page

[FreeTheHostages]

LOl, great New York Times "error page"!

[af_vet_rr]

Did you mean: french military defeats

This still amuses me.

[FreeTheHostages]

In his webblog at blacktriangle.org, the WMD error page author explains how google picks it on "I'm feeling lucky." Here are some excerpts.

Did I hack Google? No

July 4, 2003
Mini FAQ: I will have to put up a FAQ about the 404 page at some point, but in the mean time please read this short verison.

How did you fix Google?

I didn't . The page went up on the 12th of February 2003 and spread as a meme though email, personal pages, newsgroups and probably weblogs. It also got a mention in the Guardian some time ago, and was on the front page of the Channel 4 News page. It has been the top WMD site for some time in google on that basis, but suddenly it seems a combination of the current debate about weapons of mass destruction and the fun of the "I feel lucky button" at Google seems to have made the site very popular. Nice to think that people think I am clever enough to have cheated Google, but sadly I am not. Google people relax! My webpage statistics are showing Google as the top referrer now, whereas up until three days ago they were lower down. Having it mentioned on Radio Two by Jeremy Vine sent hits through the roof. I just worry about blueyonder's webservers!

UPDATE:Google appear to have fixed the search so the WMD 404 page does not appear when you hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button. I'm not sure what happened, but you now have to add in 404 to get the site top of the search. This is one of those times I wish I had a comments button.

[Prodigal Son]

Aye. I think that's all that's happened. I'm not sure how Google could fix it without dicking with their protocols. It's a legitimate web page although not a legitimate weapons of mass destruction one. It has satisfied Google's parameters and until someone with a "real" wmd page builds their site to appear more relevent to Google's bots, this page will probably hang in there.