Andrea Batista Schlesinger

Google bombing

Many of you may have read in this morning's New York Times of a group of bloggers led by the netroots strategist extraordinaire Chris Bowers of MyDD.com (a friend of DMI) who are practicing the new technique of Google-bombing, where the search engine is manipulated so that when you Google certain Republicans you are led to less than flattering news articles about them.

Chris was also interested in pursuing a Google Ad strategy that would purchase ads for the targeted legislators linking people to those same news articles.

Here at DMI, we are fans of using Google to give people more information about their legislators. We were the first think tank in the country to launch a Google ad word campaign that would publicize the records of legislators -- first in New York State and then members of Congress - in voting to strengthen and expand the middle class.

Our New York State project, launched in March, has gotten nearly a half-million impressions in the last month alone. Our Congressional project, the much bigger of the two, has been a fantastic success. Over 20 million people have seen our ads, with many clicking through to learn more about the records of their legislators.

Google is a fantastic tool. But, as with blogs and the netroots in general, the real question for all of us is how we will use these tools not just to influence electoral politics, but to influence public policy. An educated force of millions of Internet users would be the real explosion.

Andrea Batista Schlesinger: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 9:39 AM, Oct 26, 2006 in Middle-class squeeze
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