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Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 by Andy Beal

The Greatest Living American? Stephen Colbert???

UPDATE: SEL is reporting Stephen Colbert is now #1 on Google for “greatest living american“. So much for preventing Google bombs.

I only started watching The Colbert Report a few months back, but I already consider myself part of the “nation”.

So when Rand Fishkin revealed that Stephen Colbert’s producers wanted to set up a Google Bomb to get Colbert to the #1 spot for the “Greatest Living American“, I thought I’d join in.

Stephen Colbert already won my vote with his attempts to prove just how inaccurate and easily gamed Wikipedia is, so why not help Google realize that their attempts to prevent Google Bombing have failed.

So, while I don’t actually believe Stephen Colbert is the greatest living American, I do believe it will be fun to see if we can convince Google otherwise.

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14 comments on “The Greatest Living American? Stephen Colbert???”

  1. No Fact Zone.Net » THE BLOGOSPHERE ERUPTS! - Googlebombing campaign for “Greatest Living American” (and “Giant Brass Balls”) Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 11:31 am

    [...] Internet Marketing News and Consulting [...]

  2. Barbara Gavin Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 11:44 am

    If only I could stay awake till 11:30…or remember to saunter over to his web site more than once a month.

  3. Andy Beal Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 11:54 am

    Barbar - Tivo it! Or watch via iTunes. ;-)

  4. Jonah Stein Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 6:45 pm

    Andy:

    Thanks for joining in the fun. We really appreciate it.

    Two quick items.

    1. Rand slightly missed the details (since he showed up late and missed the 2 tickets I set aside for him).

    Stephen’s producers and writers had never heard of Google Bombing until I asked Stephen if he ever considered having the Colbert Nation do it during the pre-show Q & A. Once I explained the idea, he said, “I can do that?”.

    I told him that he could rank first for virtually anything he wanted if he asked his audience to play. I asked what he wanted to rank for and he responded with “Giant Brass Balls”.

    That seemed way too easy, so Jessie, Todd, Jeffrey, Dax and I decided to do something a little harder.

    2. As a renowned link acquisition expert, I hope you can appreciate that we would love you to attribute the campaign to the original source:-)

    http://www.alchemistmedia.com/blog/stephen-colbert-greatest-american

  5. Brandon Wirtz is the Greatest Living American Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 6:51 pm

    I’m working hard to own the number one Spot for Greatest Living American, and not doing too badly… I’d appreciate your support since I lack the legions of followers, or massive number of sites covering the story. I only have my youth and good looks ;-)

  6. Voodoo Ventures - Idea Fuel Blog : Blog Archive : Is Stephen Colbert the Greatest Living American: You Decide Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    [...] Stephen Colbert is at it again with his latest effort to Google Bomb the phrase “Greatest Living American“. I’m a Colbertaholic so I’ll play along with a little link love for him. Hey, its also an educational lesson in how to Google Bomb. My guess is that he is able to pull it off. He’s #8 right now, I’m sure he’ll be pushing #1 by the time this is over. Already on board are: Andy Beal, our friends at NoFactZone, Alchemy of Search, and even Search Engine Watch. [...]

  7. Andy Beal Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 9:07 pm

    @Jonah, we’ve got you covered, there’s a link back to your post.

  8. Tim Dineen Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

    I’m not sure how to watch Colbert anymore now that he’s not on YouTube ;)

  9. Jaan Kanellis Says:

    April 18th, 2007 at 11:44 pm

    “I’m not sure how to watch Colbert anymore now that he’s not on YouTube”

    Good stuff, lol

  10. Drew Stauffer Says:

    April 19th, 2007 at 1:18 pm

    It’s funny to see Colbert take stabs at Wikipedia. “The Office” does a good job too.

  11. Greatest Living American Says:

    April 19th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

    C’mon Andy, my pal Brandon Wirtz deserves some link love just for hanging in there in spite of all the SEO love Colbert is getting over this Greatest Living American nonsense.

    Jake Ludington

  12. Jaan Kanellis Says:

    April 20th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

    We know why Colbert is rising in the rankings for “Greatest Living American”, but why was Brandon ranked for this in the first place?

  13. Brandon Wirtz is the Greatest Living American Says:

    April 20th, 2007 at 4:58 pm

    Jaan,
    Everyone know’s I’m the Greatest Living American it is taught in the third grade everywhere. Colbert is just perpetuating a myth, a myth that hurts people everywhere, just like when he tried to get people to lie and have Reality be a Comodity. This is after all the guy who didn’t understand that Mr. Goodwrench was a fictional person.

    I am the last hold out, the only other person still on the first page of results, and we all know that the people on page two never get seen.

  14. Jaan Kanellis Says:

    April 20th, 2007 at 11:12 pm

    I missed that day in class Brandon.

    Anyways it is interesting to see the home page of Colbert ranking in the top spot and not the page we are linking to.

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