Google NEWS search results are being skewed by a website.

[madfloridian]

This could happen to any of our candidates, former candidates, anyone. It is manipulation of a search engine. The website is called American Daily, and it is totally right wing.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=ascii&q=%22howard+dean%22&btnG=Search+News

I have mentioned this before. I wonder if it were Kerry having this done to him if people would notice. I also found a blog post mentioning this, so I am not the only one.
SNIP..."Hey, for all of you webheads out there, help me with this:

For the last two weeks, ever since Dean made his statement about the terror alerts, some brat over at the the American Daily has rigged the tagline of their articles on Dean so that no matter what day of the week it is, their stupid articles come up first, even if they are recycled ones from back in the campaign. Is there any tech answer to preventing this?"(Found the DFA blog)

The other times I have posted I got one response. This is serious,NOT because it is Dean, but because it is happening.

[chuck555]

1. Oh poor Howard!

Can he hide behind your skirt? Was it the RNC or the DLC or the Corporate Media? The DNC or (shark music) THE S&B?
No it must be Google. Do Kerry. Tell all.

[Democat]

4. What the user is saying is that the right wing website is using tricks

They are adding new dates to old articles so that they will rank higher in the results.

That no only messes up the news search, but it keeps anti-Democratic articles from months ago at the top of certain searches.

It is not appropriate and Google should be notified.

[madfloridian]

6. Oooh!

My goodness, you are an angry one.

[Cerridwen]

2. Just used your link to google John Kerry

First 4 or 5 articles appear to be anti-Kerry.

Not American Daily, just all negative.

[Democat]

3. Contact Google and let them know

http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/about_google_news.html

[email protected]

[madfloridian]

5. That does no good at all.

It is the American Daily.

[Democat]

9. I think the user is saying that the American Daily is abusing Google

They are adding new dates to old articles so that they show up higher in Google news results.

Google News is different than the regular Google. Google can put a stop to it immediatly if they want to.

[madfloridian]

7. This is a serious issue. It messes up results.

They have done it often to Wesley Clark at times, Dean now, and they will screw up google searches for Kerry.

Kick.

[Joe the Revelator]

8. ahhhhh the hypocrisy kills me...

when it was Bush and "miserable failure" all was ok, but now that its dean we have to show some righteous indignation.

[Democat]

10. You are missing the point - this is not in the regular Google!

This is in the news search.

The news search is a moderated search and Google will look into abuse.

[madfloridian]

32. I am surprised you think it is ok to skew results of NEWS searches.

It still stuns me how such hatred can exist toward a man who is working his heart out for the party. Your remarks to me do not bother me, they worry me. After all, we are all Democrats.

[Joe the Revelator]

45. make no mistake about it....

no matter how often you want to make yourself some Deaniac martyr,My comment had NOTHING to do with any subdued hatred of Howard Dean.I'm actually quite fond of the man,but i choose to pick my battles and not wring my hands every time something may go against him. As many people have pointed out in this thread, this is more then likely a software glitch and not a subverted effort to attack Mr. Dean. After all, at this point,what real purpose would that serve?

[Cocoa]

11. it's probably a bug

I've seen this happen before, old articles from a particular site, or from a particular wire service, suddenly show up as new.

Besides, why would they be going after Howard Dean?

[madfloridian]

13. They have done this for months.

Dean is not the issue. They are skewing the results, and they have done it since last year. It is just getting worse, and they are taking over the whole page now.

[T Bone]

46. not after Dean, it is a beta to screw with the News up thru the election

I doubt they are after Dean per se. But rather this is a test, beta, or 'proof of concept' to hammer Kerry and the Dems right up to and through the election. One of the posters was most correct in saying that it is not about Dean, but rather just THAT it IS happening.

[madfloridian]

12. The results of Google are being skewed by a right wing website.

Is that clear enough? This is just crazy to attack me on this. They have taken over the media in TV, and one website has done this for months.

I have the email from Google, and they say their search is quite fair. Not when it is being skewed.

If they get away with this they will continue to do it.

[Democat]

15. People are attacking you because you aren't making this point clear

You need to make sure people understand you are talking about Google News, not the normal Google search.

Many sites play games with the regular Google search results. That is expected.

Google News is moderated by the Google staff, they only let certain sites in and they remove sites sometimes and require certain rules to be followed.

If you make the distinction then more people will understand your point. :)

[madfloridian]

16. I think I fixed the subject line. See if it is clearer.

Hell, I am so used to being attacked that it goes over my head now.

[Democat]

17. It's obvious to me now, but...

I'm just another DU "armchair strategist." :)

[madfloridian]

20. LOL

:hi:

[Cerridwen]

14. Javascript writers - a question

Does this piece of code cause the article to pull a current date and time: thereby moving it up in timeliness and rankings at google?

I found it at the top of several American Daily articles. The articles themselves display 2003 dates.

<script language="Javascript"><!--
var d=new Date();var r=(d.getTime()%8673806982)+Math.random();var u=escape(window.location.href);
var host=' language="Javascript" src="http://as.casalemedia.com/s?s=';
document.write('<scr'+'ipt'+host+'52912&u='+u+'&f=1&id='+r+'"></scr'+'ipt>');
//--></script>

[kiahzero]

18. It seems to get the current date and then randomize it slightly

And then put that randomized date into the header so that it looks current.

[madfloridian]

19. Someone else at the blog noticed it.

"American Daily has stories from January slamming Dean coded as released this weekend."

[Cerridwen]

21. Thanks. You don't by chance know if

Google news thinks this is okay, do you?

[kiahzero]

23. Actually, on second thought, it may be the popup code

At least, that's what it's labeled as.

Here's what happens:
The script, since it isn't in a function, is executed as soon as the browser reaches the <script> tag.

It creates a new date object, d, which is automatically set to the current time. It then creates a new variable, r, which is set to the current time modulus 8673806982 (another hint that it's a popup - see also http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/8336.htm) plus a random number (probably between 0 and 1). Another var, u, is set to the address of the page currently loaded in the browser.

The variable host is set to equal the following string:
language="Javascript" src="http://as.casalemedia.com/s?s=

Then, the script writes the following into the HTML that your browser renders:
<script language="Javascript" src="http://as.casalemedia.com/s?s=52912&u=&f=1&"id=></script>

So, my first analysis was too hasty - this is just code to get around some popup ad blockets.

[Cerridwen]

25. Thank you, again.

It's still weird to me, though, that so many outdated (2001-2003) articles are showing up in Google news search as just a couple or few hours old.

Thanks for you help and patient explanation of the script.

[kiahzero]

26. Yeah, there's definately something there

Do a Google News search for "Howard Dean" and all you get are their articles, because of this. Have you sent an e-mail to them, showing them the problem? Search engines often don't take too kindly to being fucked with like this.

[drdigi420]

48. DU does this too, infuriating but also useless

the people that block popups are not going to respond to a popup ad that circumvents the popup blocker

[BrendaStarr]

22. Lots of news sites are doing that.

I often go to a news piece from news.google.com thinking it is a new one (it is dated that day according to google news) and then find it's days or even months old.

(Common Dreams pieces come up like that)

But, of course the right wing would have a whole scam going about it.

I'm sure they taught each other how to do it. and use it often and endlessly.

(I believe even FOX News uses that technique.)

[madfloridian]

24. This is the NEWS search at Google, not just a site search.

News implies that you would be getting new material. I would not think that one site could dominate so thoroughly. If they do, they win.

[Pepperbelly]

27. I bet you're getting tired of explaining that by now.

:D

[madfloridian]

28. Oh, yeah!

But I will pop in now and then to say it again. :D

Think I will get of this puter and rest. We did not sleep for two nights, waiting for Charley to hit. Then the night it hit, and now we can not sleep for folks calling. Phone starting ringing at 8 this morning. At least they care and could get through.

First gotta go help some neighbors. Just found out a street near us has no power yet. Just one little street with power on all around it.

[Cerridwen]

29. FYI - American Daily owners

Sean Turner
Bio: http://www.americandaily.com/author/83

Mary Mostert
Bio: http://www.americandaily.com/author/23

From Mary's bio:
<snip>
"However, after years of first hand experience with the War on Poverty entitlement programs she concluded that they were doing irreparable harm to the black families they were meant to assist and she became a registered Republican. Moving to California in the 1973, she soon became active as a speaker, campaign manager and campaign adviser to a number of local and state Republican candidates. In the late 1970s Rep. Norman Shumway as California State Committeewoman, serving until 1991, appointed her.

In 1991-92 she served a mission as Public Affairs Director for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Johannesburg, SA. She was responsible for public affairs for the Church's Africa Area, which included 44 Sub-Sahara nations. In that capacity she met with most of the women leaders of South Africa as secretary of "Positive Action NOW!" - a national woman's group which sought to reduce the hostility among the nation's various racial, religious and political groups. She and her companion, Julia Mavimbela of Soweto, and other women met with then President F.W. de Klerk, the current President Nelson Mandela and most of the leaders of the nation's 22 political parties, which were writing the new South African Constitution. They gave each leader a "constitution packet" which included a video on the writing of the US Constitution, "More Perfect Union," a copy of the US Constitution and other material designed to help them solve disagreements and write a freedom-protecting constitution.

From 1994-2001 she created talk show host Michael Reagan's Information Interchange, researching, writing and editing articles for the Reagan website and was founding editor of The REAGAN MONITOR, a monthly newsletter that provided in depth information on key issues. Gold Leaf Press published her book, COMING HOME - Families Can Stop the Unraveling of America,” in 1996.
<snip>

Gee, surprise. A Reagan babe.

[madfloridian]

30. Wow! good research! Founding editor of Reagan Monitor.

I tried looking that up, and got stymied. Another storm moving in, and more rain on top of Charlie.

[Cerridwen]

33. Thanks. I saw from an earlier post

that you need to go take care of business after Charley.

So I kind of focused on finding out about that website.

I want to research the webpage listed as Mary's homepage on her bio.

Now, dangit, go dry out! Er, you know what I mean.

[madfloridian]

34. I am heading there. Hard to let down. Phone keeps ringing.

Help! You keep researching.

[madfloridian]

31. Here is the Sean Turner info.

Today, Sean, his wife and two children live in Duluth, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. Sean remains a small business owner and a seasoned computer consultant for a Fortune 100 company, and one of Georgia's largest employers. Sean is member of the Advisory Council of Project 21 of the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Sean is a regular columnist for GOPUSA.com, RenewAmerica.us, MensNewsDaily.com, and a contributor to a number of news and political websites. His commentary has also appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Washington Times.

Those two sites leave a lot to be desired.

[Cerridwen]

35. Here ya go

Mary's website:

http://www.bannerofliberty.com/

Where to send money to buy her book:

Original Sources
602 E. 4450 N.
Provo, Utah 84604
(no tax outside Utah)

Her blog: (includes picture)

http://www.newsbull.com/m.asp?id=680

[madfloridian]

37. OMG did you see the Bully Bully forums, the targeted forums?

This site is a treasure house.

http://www.newsbull.com/links.asp?id=9

[LTR]

36. RWers seem to be obsessed with Google-bombing

I swear, ever since 'miserable failure', they've become obsessed with it.

Seems they had a lot of spare time to learn all the tricks.

As far as Dean is concerned, let 'em be obsessed with him. The stuff the RWers criticize him over are many of the same reasons Dean's fans love him.

I say contact Google and let 'em know. You can also go into 'advanced options' and put in a source you don't want, I believe.

[madfloridian]

38. Actually American Daily did it to all the candidates earlier.

Several of us tried to point it out, but if it involves/involved Dean it is discounted. They did it to Clark badly.

[LTR]

41. I've never heard of American Daily

But if I'm looking for news on candidates, I have better ways of finding it.

[madfloridian]

43. You are missing my point altogether.

I was saying....oh never mind.

[NYCGirl]

39. Looks like the same thing is happening with Kerry

Although there is a bit more balance, the vast majority of articles on the first two pages are dominated by a trio of right wing cesspools, Opinion-Editorials (VA), Useless-Knowledge.com (and boy, is it useless), and the aforementioned American Daily, which features a nifty little screed called "Terrorists and Communists want John Kerry to Win". I haven't clicked any of the links — my cursor would need to get some shots first.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=UTF-8&q=John+kerry&start=0&sa=N

[madfloridian]

40. Yes, it is. Not on the same level yet. But we need to fight it.

News should be news, not just opinion sites.

I sent Google a link, after they told me it all fair and unbiased. I sent them titles of articles and names of sites as well. I have not heard back.

[Cerridwen]

42. LOL - mine has had shots

So I've clicked and looked.

Opinion Editorials is owned by Frontiers of Freedom founded by former Senator Malcolm Wallop http://ff.org/about/mwbio.html

"The Senator, who has built a reputation as a tireless promoter of individual freedom and small government, now chairs Frontiers of Freedom, a non-profit organization he established in January of 1995 immediately after retiring from the Senate. In its first year, Frontiers of Freedom established itself as a public policy organization with an edge. Its agenda includes preservation of property rights and reform of the Endangered Species Act, the privatization of Social Security, protection of civil liberties and the defeat of such big government initiatives as the antiterrorism bill and the national ID card legislation, and reform of the Food and Drug Administration. In February, he established the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, a 501 (c)(3), designed to study and research issues pertaining to limited government and Constitutional freedoms. "

I'll get back to you on Useless-Knowledge

[madfloridian]

44. Two others show up a lot now, Town Hall and Chron Watch.

They are equally vicious. Showing up more now for Kerry. But more for Dean since he has the nerve to talk about the terror alerts.

[madfloridian]

47. Here is the google contact page.

http://news.google.com/contact/search.html

I used the search-quality address.