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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Planet of the Michelle Obama Defenders

Google apologizes for results of 'Michelle Obama' image search - CNN.com:
For most of the past week, when someone typed "Michelle Obama" in the popular search engine Google, one of the first images that came up was a picture of the American first lady altered to resemble a monkey.

On Wednesday morning, the racially offensive image appeared to have been removed from any Google Image searches for "Michelle Obama."

Google officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Google faced a firestorm of criticism over the episode. First, it banned the Web site that posted the photo, saying it could spread a malware virus. Then, when the image appeared on another Web site, Google let the photo stand. When a Google image search brought up the photo, an apologetic Google ad occasionally appeared above it.
The Michelle Obama ape photo can be found at FlyStyleLife ยป WTF IS THIS? MICHELLE OBAMA AS AN APE HUH?

Google: An explanation of our search results:
Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google.

Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Internet. A site's ranking in Google's search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query.

The beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google, as well as the opinions of the general public, do not determine or impact our search results. Individual citizens and public interest groups do periodically urge us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Although Google reserves the right to address such requests individually, Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.

We apologize if you've had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results.

Sincerely,
The Google Team
Insincerely, actually. In truth, hit rank for almost every search engine, and certainly for google, is based almost entirely on the popularity of the hit, which in most cases reflects its popularity with the general public. Google is lying to the public even while apologizing to the hypersensitive people offended by popular opinion.

Google returns lots of insulting, defamatory search results. See for example (with SafeSearch off):

george bush
laura bush
bush twins
michele bachmann
ann coulter
glenn beck

Why does google protect Michelle Obama from ridicule? Who else does it protect? Hypersensitive people offended by impious use of the word jew, of course.

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13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The same site that did Ape Michelle Obama also did Ape Sarah Palin.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/awful-links/celebrity-apes.php

I'm not holding my breath waiting for the outrage of over that. Or the GDubya chimp comparisons.

11/26/2009 10:56:00 AM  
Blogger Tanstaafl said...

Celebrity Ape

The horror.

11/26/2009 11:55:00 AM  
Anonymous Rolling Thunder said...

I thought that picture of Michelle was an improvement.

11/26/2009 12:04:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My friend claims Google has somehow made it harder for him to track Jews by entering "jew" and "Jewish" after a name put into the Google search engine.
Could this be true? I don't know enough about computers to even begin to comprehend how it would be possible to do what my friend claims has been done.

11/26/2009 01:38:00 PM  
Anonymous eh said...

Google returns lots of insulting, defamatory search results.

Yes. Hyprocisy does not even begin to describe it. Pathetic and disgusting come much closer. Bunch of pansies.

11/27/2009 01:13:00 AM  
Blogger Tanstaafl said...

My friend claims Google has somehow made it harder for him to track Jews by entering "jew" and "Jewish" after a name put into the Google search engine. Could this be true?

I haven't noticed any change, but it is technically possible. Jews themselves are obsessed with who's jewish, so any such change would also disrupt them.

11/27/2009 06:27:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Guess what? Just call it "Joogle"

11/27/2009 09:24:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, she does look like an ape. The Left for years portrayed Bush as a chimp, so I guess this is payback time.

11/27/2009 11:34:00 AM  
Blogger Tanstaafl said...

Michelle Obama Pictures UPDATE: Offensive Image REMOVED, Google 'SORRY' (PHOTO) at HuffPo. 3214 comments and counting...

11/27/2009 03:07:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I try to remember to use this site instead of Google:

http://www.scroogle.org/

They resubmit your searches to google and thus anonymize them.

11/27/2009 07:17:00 PM  
Blogger dudhduddhd said...

They don't keep cookies either and they purge "sponsored" results and ads.

11/28/2009 07:25:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re Scroogle:

I forgot to post the link to the Scroogle search page, I'm sure its easy to find, anyhow:

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

11/28/2009 08:33:00 PM  
Blogger Tanstaafl said...

Another undeniably chimpy photo, this time sent by email to a few friends, spurs the uber-intolerant smirkingchimp.com fans to chimp out: Nothing Funny About This Monkey Mail.

3/10/2010 09:40:00 PM  

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