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Today, I happened to spend a bit of time looking at Google logos (a/k/a Google Doodles) -- those adorable, themed logos that Goggle releases in honor of various holidays and anniversaries. Curious as to whether Google noted Israeli or Jewish holidays, I used the search function on the logo page to search for Israel.
I then clicked through the results, and discovered something extremely disturbing. In each case where I clicked a time period to see the logos for that time period, the Israeli logos that were supposedly on the page (and that had been picked up by the search engine) were not on the current page. And yet, when I clicked through to the cached version of the page, the Israeli logos were there. At some point, the current versions of the pages had been purged of all Israeli/Jewish logos -- and only those logos.
...
In each case, the Israeli/Jewish logos -- and no other logo of any other nation or ethnic group -- have been deleted from the current version of the page, an Orwellian Bowdlerization designed, it would appear, to make out of Israel an unperson.
Ethnic cleansing at Google?
Article Source: israelmatzav.blogspot.com- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (16)
Interesting...
- 3 votes
#1 - Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:14 AM ESTWow whats next we find out that HP face recognition does not work with jewish people?
- 2 votes
Some people will probably find some stupid tick-brained reason to say it doesn't.
- 2 votes
Yaakov~
Maybe you need a new computer or faster internet service. In all cases the Israel logo was on the pages that I checked per your instructions, here in the USA.
- 2 votes
I do not need a new computer or faster Internet service (which has nothing to do with it anyway - that is not how technology works).
Right now, this live page does not have any Israel logos (35 listed). This cached version does (37 listed - includes two Israel-related logos missing from the live page).
- 2 votes
When I click either of the links you provided, I get 37 logos on each.
- 1 vote
Yaalov, please put your glasses on and checks the links you provided again. The logo's are there.
I just took screen shots of the pages as they appear to me right now. Here is the current page and here is the cached page.
My best guess for the different results would be a data integrity problem at Google. Whether this was because results data failed to replicate across the server infrastructure, because a server (or cluster) serving a particular region is having a problem, or something else, that seems the most likely situation that would cause different results for different regions. The fact that this change hasn't replicated across the entire Google environment more than a day later makes me think that probably it's an inadvertent problem.
- 1 vote
Yaakov, here's an idea, If you haven't done so already, delete all you cached Temporary Internet Files. Your computer may be pulling the same / old cached web pages from your hard disk. Just an idea.
@spiffie - You are saying that Google had a data integrity problem that accidentally and randomly deleted all of the Israel-related logos from its history, and did not delete logos related to any other ethnic or national group, and you are ok with this?
@AJ - Tried before I posted the article and again each time I commented. It is not a caching issue for me.
You are saying that Google had a data integrity problem that accidentally and randomly deleted all of the Israel-related logos from its history, and did not delete logos related to any other ethnic or national group,
Let's suppose you're a library, and you have your card catalog. Let's actually suppose--to make this analogy a little closer to the situation we're dealing with--that you have two identical card catalogs, one upstairs in the library and one downstairs. Now let's suppose that, for whatever reason, you lose the card catalog entries for Di-Dr in the upstairs catalog. Someone searching now for Dickens, Charles won't find him, if they're upstairs. But if they're downstairs, they'll find him fine.
Google is a catalog of data, at least in part. It appears that one part of their catalog is having a problem. It may only be the part that deals with Israel, and it may not be; we just don't know because are test data set is relatively small. In fact, I can't test at all because the copy of the catalog which I use is perfectly fine, still.
and you are ok with this?
Whether I'm "ok" with it has a lot to do with "why" it happened. Unfortunately, I don't have any special knowledge of the inner workings of Google, and I've seen no evidence to support any particular why in this case. I note that this entire article appears to be a letter written to Google by an anonymous "Yaakov H". I hope he gets a response.
- 2 votes
Good catch. I hope they get a good explanation from Google soon - and that those logos are restored.
- 3 votes
#2 - Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:56 AM ESTI'm Yaakov H. I have not heard back from Google, but in fairness to them, it took me a long time to come up with e-mail addresses for their CEO and COO, and I wouldn't swear that the ones I came up with were correct.
It would be interesting to see if this happens to someone located in France or Spain -- that the French or Spanish logos exist for them only in the cached version.
#3 - Sun Jan 3, 2010 12:00 AM ESTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
