People who typed Grand Junction Rep. Bernie Buescher's name into Google were in for a surprise Friday afternoon.
A hacker managed to manipulate the way Google and other search engines see Buescher's Web site.
The first link one could choose on the Google list, which was for Rep. Buescher's official site, read:
"Representative Bernie Buescher Copyright 2007-2008 Bernie Buescher. adult excite, amateur masturbate, anal sex shemale ... "
More inapproriate phrases and words followed.
When contacted at 5 p.m. Friday, Buescher said he and two information technologists had been working for four hours trying to figure out what the hacker had done.
"This is frustrating," Buescher said. "I've had a good part of the afternoon ruined when I could have been doing the stuff I was elected to do — working on legislation."
When you click on the link for Buescher's page on Google, it takes you to the official Web site of Buescher.
The site itself had not been manipulated.
Buescher said he and the technicians believed they understand how the hacker had manipulated the site, but were still trying to figure out how to fix it.
"I've never seen anything like this before," Buescher said.