Topless Nude Photo Makes It Way To The Google Knowledge Graph

Mar 21, 2013 at 8:43am ET by Barry Schwartz

You would think that when you search for something in Google, and an image comes up in their knowledge graph box, that the image would be rated PG-13 or lower.

Well, that is not the case when you search for Angel Tompkins (warning: topless image if you click the link). The image shown for her is from a site that appears to be a spam-blog with nude images of people.

Angel Tompkins is now 70 years old, a Golden Globe nominee and American actress, who appeared in several films and television shows. She is married with two children and lives in California. I bet this is the last thing her family wants to see as the “knowledge graph” authority image of her.

This was reported to us via Twitter from Michael Troutman, and it’s the first I’ve nudity in the knowledge graph. You might not see this box if you’re signed out of Google. But signed it, it shows at the time of this post.

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn

Read before commenting! We welcome constructive comments and allow any that meet our common sense criteria. This means being respectful and polite to others. It means providing helpful information that contributes to a story or discussion. It means leaving links only that substantially add further to a discussion. Comments using foul language, being disrespectful to others or otherwise violating what we believe are common sense standards of discussion will be deleted. Comments may also be removed if they are posted from anonymous accounts. You can read more about our comments policy here.

http://twitter.com/beyondcontent Andrew McGarry

Coco Austin almost qualifies for this article too. I was searching for the Adwords rep Coco. Honest! ;)
http://twitter.com/AnthonyFColeman Anthony F. Coleman

Sexual suggestive =/= Nudity
http://twitter.com/AnthonyFColeman Anthony F. Coleman

I hate to argue but how is this different from say searching Triple H? He’s topless and wearing a bikini covered in oil in the Knowledge Graph images.

The nudity in the example above is hardly pornographic. If this is a case of what is visually acceptable for the PG-13 demographic, should we request Google start censoring works of art as well (we can see Michelangelo’s David genitalia after all)?

Gender-biases based on nudity is institutionalized sexism and men crying out to protect women’s modesty (images or otherwise) should insulting to the equal sex.
http://misterbeing.tumblr.com/ Mod-X

She had gotten decent wage 70 years ago. It was her work. So it’s her trouble today when she sees herself in Internet or newspapers.
http://www.facebook.com/tkumarr Tarun Kumar

I guess you need to improve this sentence ” She is married with two children and lives in California.” :)
http://www.facebook.com/seoglasgow Gordon Campbell

Barry ‘reported to you on twitter’ wink wink nudge nudge ;)
http://twitter.com/lastres0rt Rachel Keslensky

Mom saw these on a previous search for some actress. I told her to disable it until they fixed the problem.
https://profiles.google.com/gyi.tsakalakis/about Gyi Tsakalakis

In other news, searches for “angel tompkins” sky-rocket…
http://www.facebook.com/abhiktheone Abhik Biswas

It seems like Google removed that image from Knowledge Graph!!
Oh hang on, they removed the image from the index too :p
Matt McGee

In the US, state laws allow for men to walk around with no shirts on. State laws don’t allow for women to do the same. You can argue equality, censorship, sexism, etc., all you want, but Google is bound to follow the laws in the areas where it does business.

Beyond the law — perhaps because of it — our society also views topless females as indecent for public display, but not topless males. If Google ignores societal mores like this, its market share will go way down in a hurry.
http://twitter.com/datebytype Blood Type Dating

It looks like she posed nude for Playboy in 1972, so whether or not these pictures pop up would probably depend on the personal settings.
keaner

not in Ontario they don’t, topless is legal for women and men :)
http://twitter.com/SyrupD SyrupD Web Design

I guess you can’t have an algorithm for everything :)
Durant Imboden

Are you sure this isn’t related to personalization?
Adreana Langston

The thing is, if that nude photo is not from the movie in which she was Oscar nominated and it is from several DECADES ago, how does that make it a relevant search result. What does that photo tell me, the web surfer about the now 70-year-old former actress?
http://twitter.com/david_smet David Smet

Ha ha :-)
http://twitter.com/david_smet David Smet

I really don’t understand all the fuzz about a picture of some woman’s breasts. It’s very weird to hear people make a problem of that. A call for censorship on nakedness, I wouldn’t expect in 2013.

If she posed for Playboy in the 70s, this picture is certainly relevant.
http://twitter.com/pavlicko david pavlicko

Now I’m curious as to their algorithm for return the main knowledge graph image. Is it based on volume of clicks on the image, popularity of that image across multiple sites, or something else?