Amazon.com A9 Search for 'Abortion': "I'm sorry, did you mean Adoption?"

[NFS4]

Ooops 😀

Amazon.com said Monday it had modified the way its search engine handles queries for the term "abortion" after receiving an e-mail complaint that the results appeared biased.

Until the recent change, a user who visited the Seattle internet retailer and typed in the word "abortion" received a prompt asking, "Did you mean adoption?" followed by search results for "abortion."

Spokeswoman Patty Smith said the automated prompt was purely based on technology, and that no human had made the decision to show the question.

"Adoption and abortion are the same except for two keystrokes," Smith said. "They also, in this case, happen to be somewhat related terms."

Still, Smith said she and other company officials decided to remove the question after receiving an e-mail complaint and deciding that it raised a valid concern.

People who type in the term "adoption" do not see a prompt asking "Do you mean abortion?"

Smith said that's because more people did adoption-related searches after typing in abortion, and said there are other words where the prompt works the same way. For example, if you type in the word "plaque" you get a prompt asking, "Did you mean plague?" but not the other way around.

Smith said people who search for the word "abortion" would continue to see "adoption" and "pro-life" under the heading "related searches," which gives people other, similar terms to search. People who type in "adoption" do not see the word "abortion" under "related searches."

http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,70453-0.html

 

[Phlargo]

That's really funny. It does seem kinda unfair it didn't work both ways. Pro-choice? Pro-life? I'm all for pro-death - we don't need more children. Just old cranky people.

 

[BrokenVisage]

Very funny!

 

[Kadarin]

Ooops...

 

[mugs]

What a stupid thing to get all worked up over.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Just like Google's "miserable failure".

 

[fbrdphreak]

ROFL!!!

 

[venk]

or walmerts search for the bible and it takes you to the fiction section.

 

[Beau]

Originally posted by: venk
or walmerts search for the bible and it takes you to the fiction section.

used to... just tried it and it doesn't work anymore.

 

[chambersc]

From article

... People who type in the term "adoption" do not see a prompt asking "Do you mean abortion?" ...

... that would be hilarious if they did get that prompt.

 

[mercanucaribe]

New rule.. If you are too much of a pvssy to handle seeing the word "adoption", you aren't allowed to have an abortion.

 

[JDrake]

Originally posted by: venk
or walmerts search for the bible and it takes you to the fiction section.

Or where they linked MLK books to books about apes/monkeys (IIRC)
:Q