For years and years now, I've used the "miserable failure" example as a way to show the extreme power of link text in my small business linking seminars. It looks like my explanation of "Googlebombing" may be on it's way out...at least it will if Google's new plans work out.

For those that are not familiar with the term Googlebombing, here's the general idea.

Since Google relies heavily on the text of an anchor link to help them judge the content of the site being linked to, bloggers and other web site owners learned that they could have a little bit of fun by gathering together to create tons of links to a site using the phrase of their choice. Bush fans and Michael Moore fans did battle like this in an attempt to get sites ranked #1 for the term "miserable failure." During the 2004 election, conservative bloggers pushed John Kerry's web site to the top of the rankings for the term "waffles."

It's long been a joke and topic of conversation among the search industry, but it looks like Google is putting some algorithmic changes in place that will address the issue. In fact, as of this writing, the two terms mentioned now above return relevant sites.

In a post at Google Webmaster Central, Matt Cutts writes:

By improving our analysis of the link structure of the web, Google has begun minimizing the impact of many Googlebombs. Now we will typically return commentary, discussions, and articles about the Googlebombs instead.

It seems to be working so far...

Hat tip to Andy Beal.