I like when I end up looking smart, in this case for not jumping on the crucify Michelle Bachmann bandwagon (though she is, of course, thoroughly nuts).

And why is it that people who write on themselves to incite outrage in others can never seem to do it properly.

Google apologizes for results of "Michelle Obama" image searches

Yet they did nothing about the images that came up with Bush as a monkey. Or is it different because Mrs. Obama is the First Lady and not POTUS?

Glad you posted this. Read that yesterday, came to post it and got distracted. I've spent a good part of today trying to remember what I was going to post yesterday.

Google has a history of modifying search results when people are intentionally manipulating things to distort results. If the Obama photo reached the top through such means then the action wouldn't necessarily be out of character.

Otherwise, my preference is that Google not tweak search results because somebody is unhappy about the results given.

It is true, though, that calling a black person a monkey has a racial connotation that calling a white person a monkey does not. The Bush comparisons were pretty clearly intended to call him stupid. Since I don't think there is anybody who calls either Obama stupid, I think that further highlights the reason that particular comparison was taken. So it could be argued that the photo is offensive in a different way and therefore different responses are not necessarily hypocritical.

It should be pointed out that while the photo is not returned with a simple Michelle Obama search, it can still be retrieved by other Google image searches.

But still, if the image reached the top organically then it should be left there. Google's algorithms are designed to figure out what people searching actually want and apparently (if it was organic) people want a racist image of Michelle Obama. This is always a problem, though, with automated dot-connecting, remember a few years back when Wal-Marts automated DVD recommending system included "Planet on the Apes" with searches for (I think) Martin Luther King.

Google bombs only require a large group of people acting together. Take any image, give it a name that doesn't apply, have enough people link to it using that name, and it will rise to the top of the results.

It would require a greater number of people linking to a photo of her with the correct name to overcome that.

I doubt there is a group of people working to link to nice image her that is greater than those working to push the inappropriate photo.

I would usually agree to let Google stay out of the organic manipulation and just let things happen but in this case, I'm not so sure.

Good points Alex. As always.

This girl I work with just said "women should support Sarah Palin because we need more strong women like her in our government. She's smart and she's looking out for all women".

At the top of my list of things I look for when looking for solidarity is people who aren't bat fvcking insane.

I'm still disgusted by what she said. That wasn't all of it. She defended the stepping down from governor by saying "She did what was smart. No one liked what she was doing and she needed time to promote her book".

I had to leave the conversation. I walked away saying "so she's just going to quit being POTUS if people don't like her or she wants o do something else? She's bringing nothing but harm to the woman's movement and I will move to Canada if she is elected"

I seriously lost all respect for her today.