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Google gets a lot of credit for its clean interface. But site operators feel pressure to clutter up their own interfaces with extra links and keywords in order to boost their rankings in Google's search engine. In public statements, Google employees say they doesn't encourage the practice, called search engine optimization, or SEO, but the reality is that it works, even though the results can be ugly. What would happen if Google had to butcher its own site the way its desperate hangers-on do? Startup executive Gene McKenna's mockup, after the jump.

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Find the step-by-step defacement here.