What Happened To Dinosaurs? Google’s Direct Answer Gives Non-Scientific Theory From Religious Site

Google search query on the demise of the dinosaurs returns an answer based on creationism.

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Wondering what happened to the dinosaurs? Probably best not to ask Google if you’re looking for an evolution-based answer.

Previously reported on Motherboard.com, a Google search for “what happened to dinosaurs” will deliver a direct answer with content pulled from a religiously-affiliated website offering up the following:

[blockquote]Dinosaurs are used more than almost anything else to indoctrinate children and adults in the idea of millions of years of earth history. However, the Bible gives us a framework for explaining dinosaurs in terms of thousands of years of history, including the mystery of when they lived and what happened to them.[/blockquote]

According to the report on Motherboard, the query “what happened to the dinosaurs” delivered the questionable direct answer. Now, if you do the same search, the direct answer has been removed; but, if you do a slightly different version of the search – “what happened to dinosaurs” with the word ‘the’ removed – you still get the creationist-inspired direct answer.

what happened to dinosaurs search

Search queries of a similar nature – for example, “why did the dinosaurs die” or “what killed the dinosaurs” – do deliver a more scientific-based direct answer as shown here:

why did the dinosaurs die

Last November, we covered a similar issue, showing how a Google search for “King of United States” delivered the following direct answer: “All Hail King Barack Obama, Emperor Of The United States Of America!” – content that was extracted from Breitbart.com, a website known for its politically-conservative commentaries.

obama-king-of-united-states

It’s worth noting in cases like this, where Google’s direct answer does not reflect the most accurate response, the content has not been reviewed by an actual person, but instead, automatically pulled from a website.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Amy Gesenhues
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Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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