A potential ‘Google bomb’ may be in the making with the social media in Kerala fuelling a rally during the past week or so over a popular district collector.

A Google bomb is generated when a group of people elevates a site in the ranking of web search results by linking a particular word or phrase to it.

‘Collector Bro’

The keyword that has the potential to become one is ‘Collector Bro,’ (short for ‘dear brother collector’) that has become viral in the social media.

K Jayakumar, CEO of Cerasleg Technologies and a Google analytics expert, told Business Line here that this keyword has been searched widely over the last two days in search engines.

“Given the high potential volumes, it may integrate virally in news or articles and in the ‘meta tag’ part of online content,” he said.

If so, it could be the first instance of a Google bomb to originate from Kerala (or even the country at large) and could come in for global scrutiny.

Sympathy wave

N Prashant, Collector of Kozhikode and one of the most ‘socially’ engaged, has stopped postings after ‘finding it increasingly difficult to deal with friends requests’ on his Facebook account.

His run-in with a local politician triggered a large sympathy wave, flooding the social media and web with calls for solidarity with the cause of the ‘Collector Bro.’

The searches had peaked up to 5,000 on Monday evening, said Jayakumar, who is a certified Google data analyst.

The traffic data through public analysis shows that every 30 minutes a minimum of 100 people were searching the web for ‘Collector Bro’.

“Normally, Google keeps a watch for trends for 10 to 15 days before declaring a ‘bomb.’ It is not the ideal thing to happen given its nuisance value as ‘traffic booster’ for unscrupulous web players.

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