A report in yesterdays NYT shows the growing importance of the Internet in the political realm.

It appears that liberal bloggers in the US are preparing to Google Bomb a number of well known Republican politicians. By linking to unflattering news reports using the politician’s name in the anchor text the bloggers hope to manipulate search engine SERPs for searches on that politician.

Google bombing is not new, but this is perhaps the first time that the tactic has been used by mainstream politics to damage their opponents.

Previously Google bombing was regarded as an ‘activist’ activity (e.g. telecoms poodle), but now that it has hit the mainstream I wonder how long until commercial interests use this tactic in an effort to damage the reputation of their competitors?

I also wonder if Google might start to consider ways to block the bomb in the future?