Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Some Disturbing Observations About Google's Autofill Search Function

With the recent GLBT suicides in the media, this really caught me off guard when doing a simple Google search the other day.  I find the search autofill feature helpful sometimes, and an outright annoyance in other instances.  I can't even count how many terrible human beings from my past that Facebook has displayed through their version of this feature that you couldn't pay me enough to have any contact with whatsoever.  Anyway, what really bothers me is that I was searching for information pertaining to setting up a webstore/business, and I merely typed in "Easiest way to", and suddenly Google filled it in with "kill oneself".  Obviously, this came as a shock, and it also greatly concerns me; not does this probably mean that it's a popular search, which is troubling in its own right, but it almost seems that something this unthinkable is being inadvertently promoted through the search engine.  The last thing that anyone needs to pop up in any search is a list of results of this manner,  I know that America is very adamantly opposed to censorship, but this is nonetheless a problem I see.  About a year and a half ago, I had an uncle that took his own life, and I can help but wonder if he was one of those who had that search.  As great as I believe the internet to be, it definitely has its darker aspects.  I just hope recent positive efforts such as the "It Gets Better" project can counter such influence.   

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