1. Go to Google.
2. Type in the words "miserable failure."
3. Click "I'm Feeling Lucky."
4. Laugh!

Oh my goodness. When that little easter egg gets out, someone at Google is gonna get fired. You gotta give the guy a high five, though, taking a chance like that...

It's not an easter egg. It's a Google bomb.

That in no way diminishes the humor value, though.

VERY interesting! That article explains it completely.

I thought that because those particular words didn't show up in the resulting web page, it meant that it was hard-coded into google somehow. Now I know otherwise. Thanks for the education.

Thanks for the education.

Not a problem. The thing that worries me a wee bit is that Google has always been touted (rightfully so, for a long time anyway) as the search engine that was impervious to all attempts to artificially inflate one's position in the rankings. They supposedly tweak their algorithm from time to time to thwart new attacks, but it seems that this Google bombing is taking advantage of Google's idea that "number of links to your page == relevancy to the topic." I'm surprised it doesn't happen more, really.

Also, something like this really underscores (to me, anyway) the increasing importance of the search engine as a legitimate research tool, yet it strikes me how easy it is to abuse and inflate the results. I personally rely on Google at least a few times a day for various work-related searches, and probably an equal number of non-work-related searches. It never fails me, it helps me find things faster than I ever could have before... Yet someone can apparently push their results to the top with a little creative linking. Kinda unsettling. Not that I rely on Google for anything critical, but if this kind of thing becomes commonplace or easy to pull off, Google becomes a lot less valuable a tool.

taking advantage of Google's idea that "number of links to your page == relevancy to the topic."

This has been the primary tactic of Search Engine Optimization firms for quite some time (e.g. backwards link farms). There's no better way to get your website to come up first for something on google than to get people to link to you. And the quickest and easiest way to do it: Post comments in popular blogs with a link to your site. I did this for my website for those Orbitz games and was #1 for that search in no time. Not to mention, as a result of those backwards links I also get spidered over 15 times a day by Google. I agree with you that Google still has a lot to iron out as far as backwards links go.

- trs

It's not only the number of links but the page rank of the inbound links. A single PR8 link is worth more than a hundred PR7's

There is plenty of dead easy money to be made in Google, both on and off the AdWords system. AdWords is tricky to make pure money off (by brokering traffic) but possible, and you can ramp it up quite easily when you get it right.

Gareth

*bump*

Well, more people must have linked to ol' W's bio because now you can get the same result by just searching for "miserable" or "failure."

- trs

Awesome. Even "Failure Magazine" is #2 in the "failure" results.

The people have voted!

The people have bandwagoned! Hurrah for democracy!

There is plenty of dead easy money to be made in Google, both on and off the AdWords system. AdWords is tricky to make pure money off (by brokering traffic) but possible, and you can ramp it up quite easily when you get it right.

Elaboration or linkage, please?

The people have bandwagoned! Hurrah for democracy!

I'll have what he's havin'.