Party Vibe

Web users entering the words “miserable failure” into the popular search engine are directed to the biography of the president on the White House website.

The trick is possible because Google searches more than just the contents of web pages – it also counts how often a site is linked to, and with what words.

Thus, members of an online community can affect the results of Google searches – called “Google bombing” – by linking their sites to a chosen one.

Weblogger Adam Mathes is credited with inventing the practice in 2001, when he used it to link the phrase “talentless hack” to a friend’s website.

The search engine can be manipulated by a fairly small group of users, one report suggested.