Technosailor.com

If you went to Amazon and searched for the term “abortion”, would you be offended by the result – Did You Mean Adoption?

Amazon, when it can’t find results based on a search will attempt to “guess” at what the searcher was looking for. In this case, the result offended the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

According to Ars Technica,

Welcome to the politicization of search. Sure, it’s been around for a while (for instance, search for “miserable failure” on Google), but expect to see it taken to a whole new level in the coming years. When sites display “slanted” results, cries of “bias” will ring out through the hills and valleys, followed quickly by calls to action. While the RCRC crows about its victory, those on the other side of the issue are already rallying the troops and attempting to mount a pressure campaign against Amazon to restore the question about adoption.

You know, I kind of find it unlikely that anyone at Amazon was even thinking of this issue much less tweaked the internals to make these results happen. But what offends me even more in this top-heavy society is that any privately owned company can be blackmailed into having to answer ridiculous claims like these.

Pick up your copy of the WordPress Bible, a wildly popular resource for beginners and experts alike.

Written by Aaron Brazell on March 23, 2006

Popularity: 1% [?]