Damage Control? Shades of Google China? There Ain't Nothing Money Can't Buy

[mbarrick]

I'm not sure what to make of this.

If you Google "vancouver 2010 mascots" (without the quotes) on Google.COM these are the results:

Top Google News result (currently a story on the Pedobear mixup)
Top four image results
The official mascot page
My blog post with Pedobear



Earlier today if you did exactly the same search on Google.CA you got exactly the same results. Just as you do with any other search without selecting the "only pages from Canada" option.

But suddenly, tonight, this changed. Now the search on Google.CA returns these results:

Top four image results
The official mascot page
Two links from the official mascot merch store
Top Google News results (the same story as Google.com)
The blog of the woman who founded the company that that did the web page for the "Coca-Cola Canada Newsroom" (i.e. an Olympic shill)
The Hudson's Bay Company (official store of the Olympics)
My blog post with Pedobear



Anybody else find that just a little bit fishy?