As most of you who see me in the forums know, I’m a Jon Stewart kinda guy. This can also lead people to make natural assumptions about my personal politics, which is certainly justifiable. Today, however, I’d like to talk about the impact of politics as a whole on the forums, blogs & SEO world.
It should come as no surprise that the last election saw a flurry of threads on the subject of politics in online communities completely un-related to the subject. I even personally took advantage of the contentious nature of party politics in 2004 to gain links to my personal website from sites both agreeing and disagreeing with my personal point of view. Political discourse and argument is one of the most effective ways to generate controversy, which has been mentioned as a link-building tactic on many occassions.
The politics don’t have to be national or even directly related to the United States. It was recently noted that Tony Blair has been Google-bombed for the term “liar” thanks to his stance on weapons posessed by Iraq. The use of the Google-bomb technique has been most popularly recognized in political use – from George W. Bush & Michael Moore, to less obvious targets like John Edwards (Kerry’s vice presidential running mate). Politics is a subject that can inspire, excite and enrage people’s emotions to a degree where they are willing and able to learn how something as complex as Internet search engines work, just to be able to take advantage of the phenomenon.
You may recall the numerous articles on the subject of Howard Dean (a presidential nominee for the Democratic ticket who was eventually eliminated). Wired, Time, the New York Times and dozens of other publications noted Dean’s creative use of the Internet to attract small donations and build up a “war chest” for his campaign.
Sadly, the politics of the world spilled over into the SEO forums, with dozens of threads being shut down (or, in cases like V7N), allowed to continue. Even threads on entirely other topics received posts that read like CNN’s Crossfire. Political cartoons, animations, and articles received a lion’s share of the web’s links during the Sept.-Nov. campaign period, resulting in a flurry of activity on the web. During election night itself, many large, national news websites were virtually inaccessible due to the overflow of traffic.
Politics is certainly a powerful force to be reckoned with, in or out of context. On the web, the lessons we can learn from the passion evoked and the massive interactivity created by political events have helped to shape the evolution of the Internet. The future most likely holds online voting, increased participation through Internet blogs, forums & news sites, and will most likely contribute to the widening gap between American political culture as both sides find re-inforcement and agiatation from their respective communities.
As an aside, today I noticed the story about Microsoft’s own politics gumming up their often inept PR machine. Microsoft, a company whose early adoption of benefits for the partners of gay employees made them a respected corporation in the liberal Mecca of Seattle, has now turned against them as they have withdrawn support for a law in favor of those same rights statewide. Microsoft’s chairman (Bill Gates) has said that the company is now re-re-considering it’s position, but it has certainly been an ugly scenario for the company (and one that has infuriated this writer in particular). Let it be a lesson to those who are forced to (or choose to) engage in political struggles in a corporate environment. Hopefully we, as SEOs and businesspeople can learn from Microsoft’s failure and the political landscape in general.
