[IP] Simple mistake. Could happen to anybody.

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Randall <rvh40@insightbb.com>
Date: March 21, 2006 2:36:20 PM EST
To: Dave <dave@farber.net>, Dewayne Hendricks  
<dewayne@warpspeed.com>, JMG <johnmacsgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Simple mistake. Could happen to anybody.

http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=285925

Tuesday, March 21, 2006 at 2:34 PM EST
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon-dot-com says it is changing the way its search
engine handles requests for the term “abortion.”

The Web retailer says it got an e-mail complaint that the results of the
searches seem biased.

 Until the criteria were changed, if you were to type in the word
“abortion” you'd get a prompt that asks: “Did you mean adoption?” Under
the question, there are search results on abortion.

A spokeswoman for Amazon says the prompt isn't meant as some kind of
political or social statement but rather a technology issue.

Patty Smith notes that adoption and abortion are nearly the same, save
for two keystrokes, so the program takes into account the possibility of
a misspelling.

But the company says it ditched the question because the e-mailer raised
a valid question. People who type in the term “adoption” don't get a
prompt asking: “Do you mean abortion.” The change in the site was
reported yesterday by The New York Times.

http://www.wtsp.com/weird/weird_article.aspx?storyid=27589



--
"The people who still support George Bush are the same people who
believe Adam and Eve rode to church on the backs of dinosaurs". -  SNL




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