Google Suggests Searchers Should "Kill Yourself" & Commit Suicide

Sep 15, 2009 - 8:07 am 5 by
Filed Under Google

A Google Web Search Help thread has a complaint from a worried searcher who stumbled upon a Google Suggestion on how to kill yourself. He said he was searching for tips on killing poisonous mushrooms and when he began typing "how to kill," Google suggested he search for "How to killing yourself."

Here is a picture:

Google Suggests Suicide

Google does sometimes censor the suggestions in the list but typically they are algorithmically driven based on searcher popularity. In this case, it might make sense for Google to filter out these suggestions.

The topic of suicide ads showing up in in AdWords is nothing new. Also, in the past we talked about Google censoring both the ads and organic results for suicide matches. Although censoring results is typically something Google is against, censoring the suggestions is something they have historically done and should do here.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: November 20, 2024

Nov 20, 2024 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Site Reputation Abuse Policy Now Includes First Party Involvement Or Content Oversight

Nov 20, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Lens Updated For In-Store Shopping

Nov 20, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Makes It Clear It Has Both Site Wide & Page Level Ranking Signals

Nov 20, 2024 - 7:31 am
Other Search Engines

ChatGPT's Search Marketing Share vs Google

Nov 20, 2024 - 7:21 am
Bing Search

Bing Video Search Tests Categorizing Videos

Nov 20, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Blamed For New York Times Malware