If you're reading this, then you're probably already aware that knowledge is power. You sought it, and you've found it. But it doesn't end there. Information, and the ability to control the delivery of information, is ultimate power. And if you're a contibutor here, or anywhere, you've shown you already know this as well.
What you probably don't know is the extent of power that web authors actually hold. Think McCain's "YouTube Problem" being renamed to his "Prevalence of the Truth" problem. Consider the power of Bush's "miserable failure" and multiply it by a thousand. This is exactly what Chris Bowers has set out to do.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the "miserable failure" story, let me quickly recap. A whole bunch of bloggers who loosely understood Google's algorithm created a link to Bushy's WhiteHouse.gov biography with the text set to "miserable failure". En masse, this convinced the Google algorithm at the time that if so many website owners would suggest the site to their visitors with the words "miserable failure", people searching for the term would probably want to see it too.
It was a hilarious prank, but it served no purpose of persuasion and rightfully fell short when Google updated their algorithm in 2007. And I've got to agree with Google's update, because as much as I think it's a relevant result, the text "miserable failure" doesn't appear on the web page, and a lot (albeit a minority) of people would argue that it's an irrelevant association.
Conversely, an article or video documenting John McCain or Bush's miserable failure, linked to using their name as the context (as I have here), is a perfectly accurate association.
And now, as a result (no pun intended) full of irony, the creators of the movie Outfoxed are controlling Google's 4th and 7th results for the term John McCain. Of course, their use of video to clearly and indisputably reveal McCain's flip-flops is a large departure from Rupert Murdoch's approach of feeding loaded talking points for "pundits" to regurgitate, but that's just a matter of style.
What is of significance is that the aforementioned two pages weren't even targeted by Chris Bowers and the SEO (search engine optimization) movement at large. These pages, simply by being worthy of the recommendation that all web authors can give, have risen to the surface.
In other words, say hello to a massive shift in power; from the rich traditional media owners and the talking head puppets that serve them, to us, the democratic base. Not by virtue of our being democrats, mind you, and not to us Kossacks alone, but to every person who thoughtfully contributes to the freely available and ongoing discussion of politics online.
It's just so happens that those contributors tend to be democrats well educated and motivated by the social good of programs that will help people other than themselves.