Penny Nance, the head of the anti-gay religious fundamentalist group Concerned Women of America, wrote a column for Fox News attacking Google over what she considers a biased failure to combat the spread of Sen. Rick Santorum's well-known "Google problem."
In her screed, Nance writes:
Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) is the father of seven children, a devout Catholic, and current GOP presidential candidate. But when someone types his name into the Google search box, the very first result that appears is a website detailing a sex act “by-product” named after the senator. In fact, the Senator’s own website is the fourth result.
By contrast, Rick Santorum’s website is the first result that both Yahoo and Bing give the user. According to SEO Researcher, it’s estimated that over 56 percent of users click on the first result that comes up in their search, and only 13 percent click on the second result. Beyond that, the click-thru numbers are miniscule.
...
Google needs to do the right thing as a company and deliver what is best for the consumer when they type in “Santorum.”
Problem? Ms. Nance is lying. Here's what happens when you type in "Santorum" into Google (click for full image):
As you can see, Dan Savage's "redefinition" is at the top. And now, in consecutive order, here are the results for Bing and Yahoo, which show exactly the same results:
In Yahoo's case, The Santorum site is at the top of the search results, though immediately below the "article" feature forced to the top. But all three screencaps are from the dutiful result of taking Nance at her word and comparing the results in all three search engines. At the very least Nance didn't do her homework, though a less generous observer might call her a baldfaced liar, which, as I recall, violates some commandment or other about bearing false witness.