First 'Feku' and now 'Idiot', there's something wrong with Google's algorithm. Yes, if you type the word 'idiot' on web search engine Google, it will direct you to at least five-six stories related to US President Donald Trump along with his pictures. Similarly, in May Prime Minister Modi-related news stories and pictures appeared on Google when one typed the word 'Feku'.
Trump's case on Google apparently started after British protestors pushed Green Day's hit song 'American Idiot' to the top of UK charts during the week of Trump's visit.
However, fuel to the fire was added by the Reddit community members, who used Google Bombing -- a technique where users post several articles featuring a specific word like 'Idiot' or 'Feku' related to a specific person -- to manipulate Google's search results. Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website.
The 'Google bombing' is a tactic whereby a specific person or web page is targeted so that it appears on top in search engine results page. 'Google bombing' often results in humorous and unusual web results.
Back in 2007, then US President George W Bush also became the victim of 'Google bombing', wherein any search for 'miserable failure' led to his biography web page on the White House website.
Here in India, it was reported in May that an image search for 'Feku' or 'Pappu' led to the pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi, respectively. The BJP often uses the word 'Pappu' for Rahul Gandhi while Congress uses 'Feku' for PM Modi in a less-than-flattering sense. Similarly, in April, Google had shown the picture of PM Modi if one typed the phrase 'India's first Prime Minister'.
Meanwhile, tech giant Google has not said anything related to the 'Idiot' search manipulation so far.