Originally, a Google search for Barbara Bauer turned up the Writers Beware 20 Worst Agents list at SFWA as page 150-something. In 24 hours, it has moved up about 30 spots, to 120-something. Not bad, but still a ways to go before we hit #1. We'll see what happens as the Google spiders continue to index all of the new links ... links which will hopefully continue to snowball for a little while longer.

And hello, what's this? A Yahoo search for Ms. Bauer now turns up that list as the #5 result. Most search engines follow similar algorithms, so a Google-bomb will actually affect them all. Nice to know, isn't it? :-)

And don't forget the technorati tags, which keep a list of all the BB-related posts. Lots of folks talking about Ms. Bauer these days.

At its core, the Internet is all about communication. Okay, communication and p0rn. But if you're a scammer, your success and survival depends on keeping your victims in the dark. Storming into one of the largest communities of writers on the Internet and making threats ain't the best way to do that. Particularly when your threats lead (either directly or indirectly -- there's some confusion as to the host owner's own motivations) to getting that site shut down.

As I understand it, Ms. Bauer has a habit of sending nasty and/or threatening letters to people who re-post that top-20 list or spread the information around. I see this as a good thing. By the time she starts writing to all of us who have shared that information, she won't have any time left for scamming new writers. Sounds like a win to me :-)

Technorati Tag: BarbaraBauer