Racial Hate-Site Games Google & Wins. The Stinking Truth About Search
Oh, Google! So. I saw someone mention (on Facebook, of course) that horoscopes were being changed so (eyes rolling) I googled it.
Got as far as the “h” and then I saw this…
Did the holocaust happen? That’s the auto-fill?
WTF, Google?
So I clicked it. And got this…
Obvious question for people, like me, who live under a rock?
Blown Away. Just Blown Away.
More, of course…
Keep in mind… all this showed up when I casually typed “Did the h….” — I wasn’t looking for any of this…
Search Engines are not harbingers of truth
Google “is” search. It’s what we do. We “google” things when we are looking for answers. Do they have the same responsibility not to promote hate speech and hate groups?
Google says no.
In response to a question from Fortune, a Google spokesperson suggested the company does not intend to do anything to change the search results.
“We are saddened to see that hate organizations still exist. The fact that hate sites appear in Search results does not mean that Google endorses these views,” said the spokesperson in a statement.
One of the biggest, fattest myths about SEO is that it “changes” all the time.
Google’s algorithm changes all the time. Roughly 500+ times per year according to the official Google blog.
The reason the algorithm changes all the time is what’s important.
Google’s algorithm changes all the time to prevent *not really popular* sites from hanging out on page one.
So when you go out and build 100 links to try to get your page to rank so you can make a few more damn sales, their robots can tell the links came from the same origin IP. Oops, better fix that algorithm… people be gaming us.
But when a site is “legitimately” popular, with lots of visitors, and rabid posting, that’s the site that “belongs” at the top of Google. No matter how vile and offensive and hateful that site is.
And that’s the stinking truth about how search works.
Personally, I think Google should ban hate-speech sites. It’s their company, they can do what they want. They could use their behemoth size and status to make a statement. They chose not to. And that sucks.
If you made it this far, would you please click the heart so this can reach more people? I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!
