This quote usually comes from a popular or recent article about the person that also appears in the Google News search results. The quote is automatically generated by a Google algorithm – not hand-picked. And as we know all too well, there are often flaws in algorithms.

This leads us to Ron Paul, and the unfortunate misquote that adorned his search results a couple weeks ago. Barry Schwartz pointed me to a Google News Help thread where one user had captured a result with a particularly racist misquote from the Presidential hopeful:

The outraged user commented:

This was never spoken by Ron Paul, and should not be displaying Inaccurate and Misleading racist quote to Millions of Google users. Can anyone post a news article with “questionable content” and then have Google use it to deface an individual just because of one authors prejudice? Please remove this, it has been showing for days, I would hope Paul himself would take legal action against Google for something of this nature.

There’s a good point in there. This kind of thing could be seen by millions and millions of Google users, especially if it was plastered at the top of the results for multiple days. Of course, Google didn’t do this on purpose to smear Ron Paul, but there’s no denying that this kind of accidental misquote displayed so prominently could really do damage to a public figure – especially a politician running for the highest office in the land.

This quote is no longer displayed when one searches for Ron Paul within Google News -

But it got me thinking. This Google News feature may have the problem of providing some serious confusion, misquoting, and out of context quoting on occasion. I mean right now, if you search Mitt Romney within Google News, you get this quote at the very top:

To be fair, that’s not a misquote – Romney did say that. But that quote has been at the center of a huge controversy within the Republican party and a focal point of attacks against the former Governor for the past week. The whole controversy centers on the fact that Romney supporters feel that quote was taken out of context. It’s kind of ironic to see it presented at the top of a Google search without any context.

Other, smaller problems can occur as well. Take for instance the confusion created when you search for Joe Biden within Google News:

That quote is cut off and therefore it is unclear who he is talking about. To a casual searcher who doesn’t quite grasp that section’s function, it might appear that it’s just saying that Joe Biden himself will “double down” on those policies.

Then again, sometimes the algorithm works splendidly:

As you probably already know, this little Google problem pales in comparison to the one facing another GOP hopeful.

On Thursday, Bill Gates appeared at the University of Washington to talk to students. He visited the Computer Science & Engineering Department and discussed the evolution of computing, and its global impact.

He also dropped this quote, and it’s been making the internet rounds today (courtesy of GeekWire):

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars, there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that. But once you get much beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger. Dick’s (a fast food chain) has not raised their prices enough.

But being ambitious is good. You just have to pick what you enjoy doing.

Some on the web are saying that Bill Gates is telling students not to strive to be billionaires. I don’t quite see it that way.

I’m no billionaire. I’m also no millionaire. When I’m lucky, I’m a thousandaire. But I can see Gates’ point. Once you reach a certain point of wealth where you can afford anything you want, everything else is icing on the cake.

Unless of course “everything you want” involves things that cost billions of dollars. But that’s a pretty rare scenario.

Maybe this quote from Gates is an insight into why he’s so philanthropic. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest transparently-operated private foundation in the world. Its charitable donations and various programs total hundreds of millions – even billions of dollars a year. I guess Bill Gates knows that his life isn’t going to be much different with 60 billion dollars as opposed to 40 billion dollars.

In other Bill Gates news – today, October 28th, is his birthday. He turns 56.

What do you think about Gates’ comments on wealth and ambition? Let us know in the comments.

With the extra attention surrounding the Apple co-founder and ex-CEO due to his death and people’s desire for all things Jobs, especially quotes, the publishers of a new Jobs quotes book are rapidly moving up the release date.

The book is called I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words and is edited by George Beahm. According to CNET, the book is being pushed up so quickly that it will be available in stores by the end of October.

The book was originally set to come out next March, but was moved up to November 15th after Jobs’ resignation as Apple CEO. Its page on Amazon.com still lists the publication date as November 7th, but apparently it will hit the shelves even sooner than that.

Drawn from more than three decades of media coverage—print, electronic, and online—this tribute serves up the best, most thought-provoking insights ever spoken by Steve Jobs: more than 200 quotations that are essential reading for everyone who seeks innovative solutions and inspirations applicable to their business, regardless of size.

“The thing that really struck us is that right after Steve Jobs died, there was this phenomenal outpouring of emotion and interest in everything related to Steve Jobs, and not the least our book,” the book’s publisher Doug Seibold told CNET. “And what we’ve seen in this past three days is this phenomenal response from readers and booksellers to the book.”

His book is not the only Steve Jobs book that is already receiving a lot of buzz. The only official biography of Jobs, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, has moved up its publication date to October 24th. It was sitting at November 21st before Jobs’ death.

The rights to the book have even been snatched up by Sony Pictures for an upcoming film on his life.

What do you think about all of this upcoming Steve Jobs media? Will you read/watch any of it? All of it? Let us know in the comments.