Mitt Romney might want to ask Rick Santorum for some helpful tips on how to deal with a pesky Google problem, now that "Romney" has become a very popular, Google-bombed joke.

Yes, it's a little bit immature, but search "Romney" on Google and you'll see spreadingromney.com high up on your results (right behind Mitt Romney's Wikipedia page this morning; image below) with this definition: "1. To defecate in terror 2. Former Governor Mitt Romney." This is a reference to "Crate-Gate," the story of how Romney's dog Seamus reacted to being strapped to the roof of the candidate's car.

As Santorum knows from his experience with his own Google-bombing, Google's algorithm depends a lot on popularity.  And Spreading Romney's 3,416 Facebook "likes", 1261 Tweets, coupled with shoutouts from sites like New York's Daily Intel and Romney's not-so-solid inevitability as of late all helped it climb up the Google results chart. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan noted one week ago that ninth seemed to be the most consistent position for the site. Not counting the news results, Romney's Google problem is the third result today. 

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Alexander Abad-Santos