Is Google Racist?!?!

"PatBateman" (PatBateman) 08/09/2013 at 15:17 • Filed to: Racist Search Engine

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There is a story that just popped up on the local news about a woman (pictured above) who is wanted by the police for punching a 1 year old in the face while she was babysitting the child. I very innocently searched her name using Google, putting just her name and the city she resides in into the inquiry field. I'm not really sure what to make of the results that I got back. I'll let you be the judge:

Is Google racist?! No irresponsible comments, please.

AbigGRNboot > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 15:20

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Are we sure these aren't things she liked on Facebook or G+, and Google thinks you would like them also, since your searching for her?

*shrug*

PatBateman > AbigGRNboot 08/09/2013 at 15:22

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I haven't the foggiest idea. It very well may be tied to Google Plus, but... I don't know. It's cray.

AbigGRNboot > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 15:24

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I think the important question here is: Does that make her racist?

Mosqvich > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 15:24

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I got the same results. It's curious. What can they tell from a name? Is it because she's wanted?

PatBateman > Mosqvich 08/09/2013 at 15:26

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I'm glad it's not just me. I tried on both my work computer and my handy dandy OppoLock tablet (iPad), and it gave me identical results.

Bakkster, touring car driver > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 15:27

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"Stephen Dubner talks to Harvard professor Latanya Sweeney about a mysterious discrepancy in Google ads for Instant Checkmate, a company that sells public records. Sweeney found that searching for people with distinctively black names was 25% more likely to produce an ad suggesting the person had an arrest record – regardless of whether that person had ever been arrested."

http://www.freakonomics.com/2013/04/08/how…

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Mosqvich 08/09/2013 at 15:29

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PatBateman > Bakkster, touring car driver 08/09/2013 at 15:29

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Weird, but I also wouldn't call "Christi Gary" a "black name". It's almost like a black hat SEO grabbed the story and screwed with the search results.

For Sweden > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 15:31

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Google was made by Crackers, so yes.

Mosqvich > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. 08/09/2013 at 15:32

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I wish GIFs had sound!!!

lonestranger > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 15:32

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That's weird. I just performed an identical search. The first 2 hits were relevant news stories, then the rest on the first 2 pages are:

McDonald's

Little Caesars

AutoZone

Popeye's

Church's Chicken

Dr. Gary Rosenberg

Texas Farm Bureau Insurance

Denny's

another relevant news article

EZPawn

Dollar Tree

Wendy's

Rosenberg Police's Facebook

Routefriend directions to McDonald's in Rosenberg, TX

Chase Bank

another relevant news article

Frito Lay

KFC

PatBateman > For Sweden 08/09/2013 at 15:33

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Stupid racist crackers.

PatBateman > lonestranger 08/09/2013 at 15:35

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I'm actually surprised that there weren't more news stories in the search results. If you use quotation marks around her name, many stories pop up.

Bakkster, touring car driver > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 15:44

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Their stuff on culturally distinctive names in interesting stuff.

Casper > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 16:19

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It's probably because the algorithm only targets on popularity and metrics. Her names were not relevant to top searches, but the location was. The most popular searches for the area were food and auto parts apparently.

PatBateman > Casper 08/09/2013 at 16:28

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But if you google Rosenberg, there's no mention of any of those businesses.

Casper > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 16:30

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So the logical assumption is that it knows not only who she is, but determined her race, then calculated it against some sort of stereotype database? Try seeding the search with two other random names plus Rosenberg and see what you get.

Edit: Don't use Frank and Betty... you get a bunch of depressing stuff about dead people.

It's interesting. If you change out either one of the names, the results change immediately from food to mostly shopping.

PatBateman > Casper 08/09/2013 at 16:40

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Tried it with two people that I know that live in the town. Again, no mention of any of the stores.

Casper > PatBateman 08/09/2013 at 16:45

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It's weird that it works by far best for food results with the Christi Gary combo. There must be some basic reason for it. It is interesting. If you use Christi with any other name, it tries to correct the spelling with a suggestion, but with Gary, it doesn't. It must be a very common name combination or something.

GreenN_Gold > Mosqvich 08/09/2013 at 17:09

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I've only had an iPhone for 6 days. What's the arrow and the grayed out bowtie in your header? (I'm iChallenged still.)

conrader > GreenN_Gold 08/09/2013 at 17:18

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Arrow is location services (are currently in use) and grayed out bowtie is bluetooth (if thats a bowtie)

GreenN_Gold > conrader 08/09/2013 at 17:36

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I see, thanks! "Bow tie" is the best I could describe it. I don't see any bluetooth use in my near future since my Subie has near zero options.