Sunday, February 1, 2009

Google suggests I might be looking for a replica gun and tries to help me



I searched Google for the word replica and it tried to help me by suggesting to see results for replica guns. :O

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=replica&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Curious me, I quickly went to Google Adwords Policies page, which prohibits advertisers from advertising for replica and counterfeit goods in following words

"Counterfeit Designer Goods

Don't advertise counterfeit designer goods. Advertising is not permitted for products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods. A replica good contains the trademarked name or logo of a designer brand but is not made by that brand."

It also prohibits advertising for weapons in its Adwords policy.

So you cannot advertise replica products or guns, rightly so. But it is alright for Google to suggest replica guns in its search results???? (see it in screenshot marked with bottom left rectangle.) Another search conducted on Google.com for replica had it suggesting me 'replica watches'

How can Google promote something it prohibits?

It was a human error that almost the entire world wide web was "malware" just yesterday. This looks more like a machine error.

Have you noticed any wierd "see results for:" sections on your search results that are non-appropriate or violation its own policy guidelines?

Update : I got automated reply from adwords team about my reporting to them.

PS: It also allows advertiser to sell $48 replica rolex watch(see the screenshot with marked rectangle on the right. One possible reason the advertiser got away with is because advert uses the word Replice instead of Replica. Good enough to tricks the bots, but I thought adverts were screened by real humans. Doesn't seem so.

What would Google do? for new you

"What would Google do?" is the new book from Jeff Jarvis that asks the question "What would Google do if it was an auto company, a management, a service company, religion, government etc". This questions is more relevant now than ever before.

In the world that has turned upside down and inside out, where Lehman's, Bear Stearn's and Woolworth's are no more and GM's, Ford's and Chrysler are close to getting there, one company defies it all - this doom and gloom. It is THRIVING and not just surviving.

The books aims to deconstruct Google's success from a distance and ponders how it can be applied to us. This book is not about doing things the way Google does. It's about thinking the way Google does and applying it in our lives, career, business; in the world where old rules are getting extinct every passing day.

This book has provoked me to think about few rules Google has changed. By no means this list is exhaustive. The idea of this post, like the book, is to provoke a new way of thinking that is needed to thrive in this new "Google era".

Small is
the new Big (Adsense/Adwords)
Open is
the new close (API, POP3 and IMAP for Gmail ect)
Listening is the
new conversation (Google labs/Gmail Labs)
Less is the
new more (Google Home Page)
Free(mium) is the
new premium (Google Analytics)
Chaos is the
new management (Google video/Youtube/Orkut/Picsa)
20 is the
new 80 (Gmail/Google news etc.)

How do you think your life can change thinking the Google way?