Imagine you are sitting in an interview and your potential boss decides to Google your name right in front of you.
Now imagine if Google then auto-completes your name to things that might not look great. Maybe a medical condition? Maybe something you may have done when in college that you are not proud of? Maybe a conviction you had for something you did in your teenage years? Maybe it has nothing to do with you but someone else who has your name?
A Google Web Search Help thread has one person upset that when you search for his/her name up comes that he is/was bipolar.
He wrote:
Very sad but this is not uncommon.
Just start typing in Matt Cutts into Google and you will see things like:
matt cutts is a liar
matt cutts is a seo spam
matt cutts is evil
That can’t be great for him to see from a search engine he helped design. But knowing Matt, he wouldn’t change it or even think about changing it.
Of course, Matt doesn’t need a job. It won’t make him any richer or poorer to remove the results. He won’t likely lose sleep over it, at least I hope not. He won’t have to pay doctors to help him mentally handle the issues.
Do you think something must be done about Google Instant? If you think so, see our coverage and the video of the Google Organic Search Policy Panel.
We’ve covered this topic often in the past 10+ years…
Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.
