Rick Santorum has a Google problem. The former GOP senator from Pennsylvania, who is currently running for president, is fighting a losing battle to get the search giant to remove a rather distasteful link that appears when searching his name.
If you type "Rick Santorum" into Google.com, the top search result is not his campaign Web site or Wikipedia entry, but a link to spreadingsantorum.com, a Web site that uses his namesake as slang for ... well, I'll let you Google it.
The link has been atop Google for some time now, as fans of "The Daily Show" are well aware. But the issue is back in the spotlight once again given Santorum's bid for the presidency, as well as Google's recent Capitol Hill appearance, where Eric Schmidt discussed its ranking procedures.
In an interview with Politico last week, Santorum said Google could change the results, but chooses not to. "I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they'd get rid of it," Santorum said. "If you're a responsible business, you don't let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country."
Google told Politico that people who disagree with certain Web content should contact the webmaster directly. Search results "are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the web," Google said. The company only removes links in "very limited cases."
The offending links are second on Bing and Yahoo results, behind Santorum's campaign Web site.
Contacting the webmaster, "Savage Love" columnist Dan Savage, is not likely to have much effect. He created the term, and the site, after Santorum made some controversial statements about gay marriage back in 2003.
"In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality [of marriage]," Santorum told the AP.
Savage soon called on "computer geeks to move my definition of santorum to the top slot on Google," and low and behold, it worked.
"No money changed hands," Savage wrote in February. "We didn't pay Google a thing. Spreading Santorum rose through the Google ranks on links-and-merit alone."
Savage said Santorum's complaints about the link are just sour grapes. "This from the man who compared people in stable, loving same-sex relationships to dog f***ers and kiddie rapists, this from a man who would make gay and straight sodomy illegal, ban gay marriage and any other protections for same-sex couples, and prevent loving same-sex couples from adopting children who need homes."
Last week, Savage posted excerpts from a few stories that discussed Santorum's "Google problem," with the headline: "Sad Trombones Play for Rick Santorum."
Also last week, Google's Schmidt appeared on Capitol Hill to discuss what some consider to be anti-competitive behavior on Google's part. He denied that Google gives preference to its own products, and said results are calculated algorithmically. "I'm not aware of any unnecessary or strange boosts or biases" in search results, he said.
It appears that Santorum isn't too upset with Schmidt, joking about an encounter he had with him at the recent Fox News/YouTube-sponsored Republican debate in Orlando.
"Eric Schmidt just dropped in to our green room to thank me for increasing Google traffic jkjk! He actually did stop by - nice visit," Santorum tweeted last week.