Friday, July 11, 2008

Honest Google search leads to Politically Incorrect Result


This was found under pure and honest pretenses.
This entire week I volunteered to help out with Vacation Bible School at my church. Before everyone freaks out NO I AM NOT TEACHING. I am just a guide, I get the kids from one place to another.
In the class I have an autistic child. He is an amazing kid I have to say, very vocal and animated. I had heard some where before that vocal, autistic children had some sort of savant capability. I was curious, I wondered what this kid might be good at.
The problem is I was not sure how to deal with him,not that dealing with him was an issue at all, like I said he is a great kid. I had told him in the hallway earlier in the week his shoe was untied. I asked if he knew how to tie it and he started singing a song about tying his shoe. I told him "No problem buddy I will do it for you."
So I had been Googling images earlier in the day and was not sure how to Google results for Autism. Yeah I know call me an idiot. But I Googled the words Special People in the image section. I had already had a Google search up as I mentioned before. I was surprised by the algo's "Related Search" results.
I sent the results to a good friend of mine Tamar Weinberg. People were a little dismayed at the results and an article was published at SERoundtable.com. Moral of the story, not all results are PC. We have to remember that the Algo is not human and things happen. Hopefully Google will fix this.
In the mean time if you are curious about Autism check out Autismspeaks.org. Great place and loaded with information.

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