Now Google Searches For “Educating” Not Safe For Family Viewing
Jul 23, 2008 at 11:17am ET by Barry Schwartz
I feel bad for always seeming to pick on Google about showing inappropriate images in normal web search. But it’s happened again. This morning at the Search Engine Roundtable, I explained that a search for [educating] returns a “teacher standing over a student holding a small rod, with the student’s pants down leaning over a desk.” For the term education! What is even worse is that I privately reported this image three days ago to Google for removal, using the new Report Images feature in Google web search. Today, it’s still sitting there (though now, not likely for long). Here what’s showing:
When Danny saw this on our daily story budget, he pretty surprised to see it happening with such a generic term that might be used in places like schools or by searchers of all ages — and that it was still happening despite me having used the Report Images tool. So he thought we should highlight it here.
These problems with inappropriate images showing up because of universal search aren’t new. Here are other cases where we’ve covered pornographic images, nude images, and so on in Google’s web search (where a normal Google search shows web images at the top):
Last August, a search for [raccoon] brought up this:
In November, a search for [chewing gum] brought up a semi-naked woman.
In March, a search for [hot celebrities] returned a very explicit image.
Last month, a search for [new bathroom] returned a nude woman in a bathtub.
We have also seen porn images in Google News, not only once but twice.
On a somewhat related note, Digital Inspiration reports that Google Sites, their free webpage making software, is filled with drug and spam sites. And if you didn’t know, Google Groups is as well.
Postscript: A reader just informed me a search for bea arthur returns nude photos in the search results.
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