The result of a defamation case in Paris, France, has shed light on the lengths companies will go to if search engines are providing users with incorrect or damaging information.
The case, involving the Centre National Privé de Formation a Distance (CNFDI) and Google, centres on the search giant’s automatic drop-down on its homepage query box.
The system attempts to predict what a user is looking for and puts forward suggestions and the number of results available.
Queries for CNFDI were found to have results returned based on the word “scam” – something the organisation obviously didn’t like.
The Paris court of appeal has swung in favour of CNFDI and ordered Google to remove the suggestion from search results.
For its part Google says the system is automatic, based on the complex algorithmic Kung Fu going behind the scenes, and denies liability.
So given the emotive nature of travel, a product which often triggers consumers to rant in forums and on blogs following unfortunate events on holidays, are travel companies falling foul of the Google Suggest tool?
Tnooz tested all the travel organisations featured in the First Tweet from 50 Travel Companies and it appears that most companies would be pretty pleased with what Google Suggest is throwing back at users.
The only three to find themselves on the receiving end of slightly unsavoury suggestions on Google UK were American Airlines (crash), Air France (crash) and British Airways (strikes) -Â even Ryanair, with its less than savoury reputation in the media and supposedly among consumers, escaped in a test of other companies.
Meanwhile, perhaps EasyJet will be wondering why this rather unusual equine addition to the suggestions returned from Google US…
This is something that has been happening for a while, occasionally with quite humorous results. Try entering the word ‘is’ with a space after it…poor celebs are often the first to suffer, though it is quite amusing for the rest of us!