Persian Gulf

If you're Persian, you've probably heard about the fiasco over the name of Persian Gulf in the most recent edition of the National Geographic Atlas.

They have decided to put the bogus name of Arabian Gulf on the map as well. This has outrage the Iranian community and caused a massive movement on different fronts to counter the issue.

First, there is the NIAC initiative. They have created a handy form where by filling a couple of boxes and clicking a single button you can send an [editable] email (or a regular mail if you wish) to various people in the National Geographic society and voice your concern. I urge you do do this if you haven't already done so.

Then, there is this petition against the issue which you can sign.

My suggestion is to also use google bombing to make a statement and voice our objection. It is really simple, and it can easily work if everyone does it. Google bombing, in short, is using a large number of links to a specific website to bring up that site's ranking in google. So everytime someone searches for a particular phrase, the first result they get is that specific page.

I have set up this mock page for this purpose. Inside that page, I have also linked to the Persian Gulf Task Force website (persiangulfonline.org) which have been defending the Persian Gulf hertiage for ages, but for some reason have seemingly abandoned the site and have remained quiet regarding this latest issue.

I believe the page I have set up deals a more powerful blow. So, if you want to join the movement, here is what you do:

link to the page http://legofish.com/arabian_gulf.htm

using the phrase arabian gulf. it is important that you ONLY use the term arabian gulf for this purpose and nothing else. We have to have a very large number of links for this to work, so please do your part.

Let the bombing begin:

arabian gulf arabian gulf arabian gulf

Update: well boys and girls, thanks to your efforts and the efforts of hundreds of bloggers, our google bomb is working. A few hours ago our page was ranked first in Canada, and slowly it spread throughout google data centers in USA and across the world. I've had people from different countries keeping me updated about the progress, even from China (which in the last update we were still second in the ranking).

Anyway, everyone who participated deserves a pat on the back, but remember it is not over yet. You have to keep searching for 'arabian gulf' in google and clicking on our page, to insure it'll remain on top. Also, the bomb is still rather unstable, and there is a chance it might go down in the rankings in the upcomming days, we need a few more crawls to get a stable result, which might take a few weeks. But for now, you can indulge in the bomb. :D