The Autosuggest or Autocomplete feature automatically offers a drop-down list of suggestions when a user begins typing out a query in the search box. People in the UK and US were being offered “isis” as one of these suggestion a few days ago. In the UK, the BBC reported that ISIS was the fourth choice, behind “the police”, “the illuminati” ad “a union”. In the US, Search Engine Land reports that ISIS comes in second, ahead of the “kkk” or Ku Klux Klan and after “the illuminati,” suggestions when typing in the words “how can I join.”
Google is known to have censored suggestions in the past, but apparently this one slipped through, until the company was alerted by the BBC. Autocomplete was introduced by Google because it is supposed to save search times for users, help them out with spellings, and allow them to easily repeat a favorite search of theirs. As of now, Autocomplete cannot be switched off.
Islamic State or IS or ISIL, is a jihadi organisation, which has now conquered a large area in Iraq and Syria. IS is believed to have recruited several individuals from nations around the world, and are well-known for their Internet and social media-savvy recruitment and propaganda techniques.
Danny Sullivan, founding editor of search news website Search Engine Land, explained why ISIS might have been thrown up as a result. “It may be that people are simply typing it into Google for research purposes, to find out about Isis, rather than simply wanting to join it themselves,” said Sullivan. “But the reason we’re seeing Isis on Autocomplete is the number of people typing in ‘How can I join Isis’.” Search Engine Land reports that Bing still throws up ISIS as a suggestion when the user enters an “i” after “how can I join…”.
Autosuggest algorithms are based on 200 factors, including search term popularity and user location. Google removes queries if reported, which relate to “pornography, violence, hate speech, and copyright infringement.”
“We periodically update our systems to improve Search, so the terms that appear in Autocomplete may change over time,” a spokesman said. “We exclude only a narrow set of search queries such as those related to pornography, violence, hate speech, and copyright infringement.”
