Quixtar and Google Rankings

Mathew Ingram:

Google-bombing has been used for other things apart from making political statements. Last year, a website created a google-bombing contest, in which it gave away an Apple iPod Mini to the person who made their website the top link for the phrase “nigritude ultramarine.” And earlier this year, .net magazine had a similar contest that gave away prizes for the top link to the term “crystalline incandescence.”

A multi-level marketing company called Quixtar has also admitted to using the practice in order to rig Google’s results so that websites critical of the company wouldn’t appear as high in a search of its name.