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Google Offers Some Disturbing Suggestions

Google Suggest Feature Issues Highlighted

14 comments Saturday, December 26, 2009

Update: Google appears to have removed the "little kids" suggestions.

Original Article: Google's "suggest" feature can be quite useful. It can save you time when typing your query if you happen to be searching for something that a lot of others have searched for before you. The feature is even useful for Google itself, because a while back, they began incorporating ads into it.

Google Suggest has some problems though. This is nothing new. People have discovered some strange suggestions from time to time. One that has been discussed around the web frequently this year for example, is Google's suggestion of "Why wont my parakeet eat my diarrhea" when a user begins a query with "why won't". This one has even repeatedly made it onto the Google Hot Trends list.

That one was kind of funny (if that's your sense of humor), but Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable is pointing to a more disturbing set of suggestions from the search engine. When a user begins a query with "little kids," the very first suggestion is "little kids having sexs". Among the other suggestions on the list are "little kids dancing nasty," and "little kids grinding."

Google Suggest - Little Kids

Schwartz  also pointed to another suggestion from Google saying "I am Extremely Terrified of Chinese People" that a user is presented with when beginning a query with "I am".

Google Suggest - Little Kids

Schwartz notes that Google's suggestions are purely algorithmic. It's not as though Google's staff is actually encouraging searches like these, but the suggestions do highlight the need for some adjustments and/or human intervention.

In the case of the "little kids" suggestions, Schwartz says a Google employee responded to his report by saying, "Thanks for reporting this to me -- I'll take a look." However, at the time of this writing, each of the aforementioned suggestions are still in place.

Have you seen other inappropriate or otherwise odd suggestions from Google Suggest? Share in the comments.
 

Related Articles:

Google Puts Ads in the Search Box

Google Suggest Goes Worldwide

Google Adds "Real-Time" Suggestions to Google News

About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

You wanna see some random

You wanna see some random funniness.... just type into Google "I like to." Hilarity ensues.

RE: You wanna see some random

Nice. You can find all sorts of interesting suggestions if you mess around with it for a minute or two.

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