Prometheus 6

"There is no way to defend this heinous incident," said a Twitter user who gave her name as Alheli Picazo of Calgary, Canada. "People often claim their right to free speech to mask blatant racism and insulting bigotry and always seem to get away with it," she told CNN via e-mail. "When it comes to issues of discrimination, hiding behind free speech just doesn't cut it."...

Google did well to (eventually) adjust the search. And since the integrity of their search results is so important to them, they should drop the PageRank of racist sites to 1. Because this was not a political statement. It was racism with no redeeming social value...political pornography

Google apologizes for results of 'Michelle Obama' image search
By Saeed Ahmed, CNN
November 25, 2009 12:05 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- For most of the past week, when someone typed "Michelle Obama" in the popular search engine Google, one of the first images that came up was a picture of the American first lady altered to resemble a monkey.

On Wednesday morning, the racially offensive image appeared to have been removed from any Google Image searches for "Michelle Obama."

Google officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Google faced a firestorm of criticism over the episode. First, it banned the Web site that posted the photo, saying it could spread a malware virus. Then, when the image appeared on another Web site, Google let the photo stand. When a Google image search brought up the photo, an apologetic Google ad occasionally appeared above it.

The ad redirected users to a statement from Google which read, "Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."

The California-based company then explained that search results rely on computer algorithms that take into account thousands of factors.

"The beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google, as well as the opinions of the general public, do not determine or impact our search results," it said.