On Sunday, a few people noticed something rather amusing pops up on Google when you search the phrase "pathological lying": A picture of Hillary Clinton.
If you google "pathological lying," there's LITERALLY a pic of @HillaryClinton (h/t @ECampbell06) pic.twitter.com/PzqGsn9ODK
— Amy Lutz (@amylutz4) October 31, 2016
So apparently if you Google "pathological lying," this happens. I AM DEAD pic.twitter.com/ifmqtCiAgZ
— ? (@sassandpolitics) October 31, 2016
Naturally, being a tiny bit skeptical, I had to try this out for myself. And lo and behold, as of Sunday evening, it works:
This search result is called a "Google bomb," and Hillary Clinton is hardly the first politician to fall victim. A "Google bomb" is created when people link a phrase to a web site enough times for it to rise in the search results. Perhaps the most infamous example of this was when a search for "miserable failure" would result in a link to President George W. Bush's biography as the top result. Rick Santorum, Bill O'Reilly, the French military, and the Church of Scientology, among many others, have all been the subject of Google bombs.
It is unclear if Google will take any efforts to diffuse the "bomb."