In Politics, Google Is a Weapon

If you think you want to be President someday, there’s a simple step you can take now to help your chances. Go to a Web registrar like GoDaddy. Search for the domain name that consists of your last name preceded by the word “spreading.” If it’s available, buy it. If it’s not, hope that the person who already owns it shares your political views.

The “spreading” meme—started as a way to humiliate then-Senator Rick Santorum for his view on gay marriage—is itself spreading. Google “Mitt Romney” and among the top results is spreadingromney.com, a site that equates the candidate’s name with the act of soiling one’s breeches. (The exact rank depends on factors including a user’s browsing history.) Over at spreadinggingrich.com, a retired engineer outside Seattle is holding a contest to define a new word deriding the former Speaker of the House. “If more of these sites show up, Google will have to look at it,” says Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the industry blog SearchEngineLand. “It gives the impression that people can do whatever they want to Google search results.”