Google Bombs

I find them endlessly entertaining. You know, a Google bomb, where there is some specific text phrase you can enter in a Google search window that will bring up unexpectedly funny results?

My son sent me a message: in the Google search box put in "where is chuck norris" and then click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. What returns is not an actual Google search, but a page written by someone that LOOKS like a return page, only with funny stuff in place of real results.

There are a lot of people out there, with a lot of time on their hands. One of the first Google bombs I ever heard of returned the Microsoft home page when you typed in "more evil than Satan himself" in the Google search box. That still makes me laugh.

In our cyberworld, there are ways to misdirect, inform, persuade and encourage all kinds of hobbies, theories, and views. There are ways for excited people to share their enthusiasms and proselytize. There are ways for folks to vent their ire by putting captions on world or political leaders' pictures, or to share stupidity. All you need is a website and some time on your hands--maybe a retailer to torment or a group of people to mock.

Some of my favorite websites for comedy:

Icanhascheezburger - a site for LOLCats and many other shared jokes. I don't even like cats and these pictures make me laugh. For the world traveler, check out the tab for Engrish, which is devoted to bad signage everywhere.

ThereIFixedIt - a site for photos of very bad fixes and their commentary. Some of these will make you shudder.

Failblog - a classic for posting any report of things that are not functioning up to their potential.

GraphJam - a gathering place for math geeks and marketeers.

Sometimes, just the plain old news will make me laugh. But always, an unexpected result will make me smile. Searching on a term, looking for a little nugget of information and getting back a funny, makes my day every time. I guess I'm going to have to keep track of them.

Until then, I need to think of a search engine term that I can Google bomb. Any suggestions for a word or phrase we can misdirect by getting thousands of links/hits?

--Sandee Wagner