Saturday, February 14, 2009

Bubblegum Heaven and Google- WHERE ARE WE???

As time passed, frustration began to mount regarding the inability of Bubblegum Heaven to make it into the search engines, Google being the main one.

While we could be found on Google, the key here was to be found under the best keyword search possible. Sure, we could be found easily under searches of "Bubblegum Heaven" and "Bubblegum World Championship" and "Chewsy Suzy" but that doesn't count because people who would find those would pretty much have to be looking for them specifically.

What we needed was to be able to be found by the most casual searcher possible, and to us that meant one who would go to Google and type in the word "bubblegum." We thought it was vital to be there when that person was presented a list of bubblegum items.

Well, it turns out that bubblegum, being the world's greatest food, is such a popular and incredible product that it's name has been co-opted for a number of totally unrelated cultural phenomena, and which eat up all kinds of space on Google when you make this search. You have "Bubblegum Music." "Bubblegum Pop Music." "Bubblegum Culture." "Bubblegum Crisis." "Bubblegum Anime." You have a quote from a movie that appears all over the place "I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum,and I'm all out of bubblegum!" You have bubblegum songs. Bubblegum dance. Bubblegum Club. Bubblegum Society. Bubblegum Books. Bubblegum Sequencer. And that's all just within the first three pages of the search.

At the time you do a search for "bubblegum" on Google, you come up with 4,240,000 results. Of these, 786 are shown. Nowhere do you see a site Bubblegum Heaven site. This is distressing for far more reason than just the fact we are not listed. Here's why.

The fact is, if bubblegum had never existed, then all the things that come up under a search for "bubblegum" would not be there. They would have, at best, been named something else, and at worst, they never would have been created at all.

Taking it a step farther, if it hadn't been for bubblegum bubbles, bubblegum would never had existed. If Walter Deimer had never foreseen that having gum you could blow bubbles with would be a big deal, then bubblegum simply never would have existed.

And everything having to do with bubblegum would be, at best, called something else.

The word "bubblegum" itself might never even had existed.

And it's all because of the ability to blow bubbles with gum.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Regardless of what anyone may try to have you believe, bubblegum bubbles are simply the most important thing there is about bubblegum. If you couldn't blow bubbles with bubblegum it would simply be "gum" and the product wouldn't even exist, the word probably wouldn't even exist, and anything that uses the name "bubblegum" would be named something else, if it even existed at all.

What I think should distress everyone who looks to Google for good information about whatever subject they are looking for is this. BUBBLEGUM HEAVEN, bubblegum's greatest website, which is dedicated to the most important thing about bubblegum, is nowhere to be found on this search. And if that can happen on a search for bubblegum, it can happen on any search for any topic. In other words, YOU can go looking for whatever subject you are looking for and not find the most important, most extreme information on the subject that exists. If it can happen with bubblegum, it can happen with YOU.

It's incredible to see what they do have there regarding bubblegum bubbles when you do this search. Among all these websites (and there aren't many) there is one that stands out far and away the best. It stomps all over anything else having to do with the subject. It grinds them up and spits them out into practically sheer nothingness.

Which is exactly what Bubblegum Heaven does to that website. But waaay worse.

Let's examine them.

Go HERE and take a look at the website I'm talking about. Now, as of the day this was written, this site is the #10 ranked page on Google under the search for bubblegum. But note what you see when you go there.

Many times you will see the notation "Last updated 7/5/98 by bigbubbles@geocities.com." Fabulous! By it's own admission the site hasn't been updated in over 10 years! And the email address given is a dead email address, so you can't even contact them to find out anything else.

A little more examination shows a number of dead links, and other links which go to things that have apparently changed since the site was created. Then you have a number of links that go to pages under construction.

Bubblegum pictures? There is a link that goes to a page called "unsorted pictures." This link goes to a page that is "under construction." As if no pictures there weren't already more than enough, the "unsorted pictures" link also has a seperate "page 2" link that is also "under construction!"

What about pictures of really big bubbles? There is a promising link titled "Susan Montgomery Williams," which leads to another under construction link.

This description is not meant as a total bash though. The site does have some good pictures of celebrities blowing bubbles and an excellent section of movies that had scenes of people blowing bubbles.

It also, as mentioned earlier, stands far and away better then anything else that comes up in this search of bubblegum. Here's a couple examples. Just go to #12 on the list. This is a page apparently about bubblegum's greatest history making bubblegum. What do you see? A big white page with thirty words on it, that are, for the most part, links which go right back to the page you are on. And not one of those words are "bubble," "gum," or "bubblegum." Another feature of this page is a search box that if you type the word "bubblegum" into it it takes right back to the page you are on.

Or for another "amusing" comparison, take a look at page #108. Click the page and what do you get? A big white page with nothing on it but the words "An error has occurred." I would say an error has definitely occurred. This site is included and Bubblegum Heaven isn't. This is a page that would utterly throw me into convulsions if not for the one saving grace of having the URL "www.bubblegum.org."

Now compare what you've just seen to Bubblegum Heaven. Did you see websites that were about bubbles? Big bubbles? The greatest bubble blowers ever? The greatest contest ever? An interest in, or an opportunity to learn about, bubblegum's past, present or future? A chance for the viewer to create their own bubblegum legend or experience their own bubblegum glory?

Actually, if you could take all the content from all the sites you could find on this search for bubblegum (at the time this was written) and put it all into one website, that website would be like a tiny speck compared to the immenseness of Bubblegum Heaven.

So I end this blog by saying if you can do anything to assist Bubblegum Heaven to get onto this search, you would be doing a very big favor to everyone who loves to blow big bubbles, and the same to Google. If you care about doing a service for your visitors, just compare our website and consider listing it on this search, and make it relevant.

Any less would not be, well, doing a service to your visitors.

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