The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Alex]

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.