Opinion: Google Auto-Complete Makes Idiots Out of Obama, Bush, Palin, Pelosi

(Aug. 16) -- Obama is an idiot.

Bush is an idiot, too. So are Sarah Palin, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi and many other leaders past and present.

That's not me talking. That's what Google tells me in its "auto-complete" window when I start typing a search for "Obama is a" or "Bush is a," etc.

Google and other search engines like Bing added auto-complete to help users more quickly find what they're looking for. As you start typing a query into the search field, the engines automatically start cranking out suggested searches, apparently based on what others typing in those same words ended up searching for.

Whatever the intent, the result of these auto-complete suggestions is often hilarious, or depressing, depending on your perspective, providing a window into the warped minds of countless Web searchers. Are there really that many people who want to know about toilet issues in heaven? Must be, since just typing in "will we p" returns this suggested search: "will we poop in heaven." (Naturally, there's a website devoted to such auto-complete inanities at FailBlog.com.)

But what comes through loud and clear in these suggested searches is that people have an incredibly dim view of our nation's leaders.

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The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google's auto-complete feature can produce some unusual results. Click to see more screen shots.

The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google search for "Bush is a"

The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google search for "Sarah Palin is a"

The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google search for "Nancy Pelosi is a"

The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google search for "John McCain is a"

The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google search for "Al Gore is a"

The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google search for "Abraham Lincoln is a"

The Perils of Auto-Complete

Google search for "Google is a"

The Perils of Auto-Complete

In addition to "idiot," for example, an "Obama is a" search yields such things as "muslim," "joke," "socialist," "liar" and "racist" in the auto-complete window.

Try "Bush is a," and Google auto-suggests searches like "war criminal," "nazi," "antichrist," "murderer," "communist" and "muslim." The first suggestion for "Hillary Clinton is a" is ... "man."

Even Abraham Lincoln fails to get much respect. The first auto-suggested search for "Abraham Lincoln is a" on Google is "vampire hunter," and second is "racist." The suggestion that Lincoln is a "hero" only comes in fourth.

A Google spokesman told Asylum a while ago that the auto suggestions are strictly based on a proprietary algorithm, and that "the most important signal used for ranking search queries is popularity."

Really? No tinkering allowed? Is that why, when you start typing "Google is a" into Google search the first suggestion in the drop-down box is "Google is awesome"?

(h/t to Van Helsing at Moonbattery.)