The Jewish Journal points out that a search for “Jew” at Google puts a site for Jew haters at the number one position.

It sure seems to me that’s Google been gamed by anti-Semites. At least, I hope that’s the explanation since the alternative is pretty grim.

I admit that this is a tough – and interesting – case, but I’d like to see Google move the site down since Google’s aim is to provide us with good information. And, sure, I’d say the same thing if the first hit for “Catholic,” “Black,” “Arab,” or “Mel Gibson” were hate sites. But, the Jewish Journal article reports that David Krane, Google’s director of communications, says: ‘Google merely reflects what is on the Web and does its best to algorithmically rank pages. Unless [a Web page] violates a country or local law, we don’t make any tweaks,’ he said.”

Google’s motto is “Do no evil.” That works fine so long as the issues are easy and the group discussing them is homogeneous. So, if hate groups game Google and people are led to a site designed to fuel hatred, does “preserving the sanctity of our algorithms” count as doing evil?

Categories: Uncategorized dw