
‘Suicide’ Query Prompts Google to Offer Hotline - asnyder
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/technology/05google.html
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benologist
Damn they could start by not listing uncyclopedia as the #2 result for 'how to
kill yourself without pain', which auto completes as soon as you hit k.

<http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/HowTo:Commit_Suicide>

~~~
whatwhatwhat
I'm not sure about your comment however ethical it might be there is just a
really fine line between providing "moral" results and really tampering with
the truth. If retrofitting search results for "i want to kill myself" to
results that would dissuade someone from killing themselves is OK; what about
changing results for other unethical questions? How to kill an unborn baby?
How to kill my dog? How to kill my hamster?

~~~
benologist
There's no 'truth' or 'impartiality' or 'morality'. Google frames the internet
based on how their algorithm decide what's relevant, dismissing and even
completely excluding anything they decide is not relevant or spam or
malicious.

We all put intensely personal stuff in that box. Google's in a position where
they are quite possibly the only place suicidal people may reveal their
problems. I hope they do everything they can to help people who are exploring
their options, because amongst those options IS support and help even if their
SEO isn't as good as uncyclopedia.

That it should come down to SEO at all is reprehensible in some cases and
shows how poor search engine technology really is - the uncyclopedia article
isn't about killing yourself without pain, it's satire and standard
uncyclopedia stuff, none of their suggested methods except perhaps the atomic
car bomb would be painless. So not only is it irrelevant but it's machine-
judged to be more relevant than something that could help but isn't as
funny/popular and doesn't have the search engine juice.

~~~
sokoloff
While I happen to agree with you on this specific case (and "approve" of this
type of SERP monkeying), we should always be very cautious when on such
extremely slippery slopes.

I would imagine that a pro-lifer would "hope they do everything they can to
help people who are exploring their options [around an unplanned pregnancy],
because amongst those options IS <what pro-lifers want>"

Similarly for religious or political or other moral topics. Should Google
monkey with the SERPs for all of those topics? If so, who gets to decide in
which direction it should be altered? (It happens that there isn't a very
active group in support of suicide, euthansia aside, so this one is fairly
non-controversial.)

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dantheman
Google can do whatever they want -- there is no slippery slope; if you don't
like what google is doing don't use it.

~~~
sesqu
And if I like some of what they do, but dislike some other bits of what they
do, I should somewhat stop using them?

Like only using Google search for products and services I wish to be notified
of by their sponsors, and Baidu search for products and services I would
rather not be associated to my name, such as "spotted dick"? Sorry, I won't
fly that flag.

If a service is almost what I need, I should be encouraged to provide
guidance, not told it's their way or the highway. Especially considering that
the larger the service provider, the more likely it is that the highway _is_
theirs, and competitors either aren't supported by the market, aren't allowed
by market instruments the provider has helped establish, or have comparable
shortcomings.

If you disagree, don't reply. Write your own damn comments from scratch.

~~~
sesqu
That last part was a joke.

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dane
I assumed someone internally bombed "Suicide: Read This First"
(<http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/>) as it frequently appeared first in my
morbid search history (e.g. "i want to die"). I guess that's Google doing what
Google does best.

~~~
orblivion
Reading out of curiosity. I really like how it's very practical and not
condescending.

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meroliph
Perhaps they could try making it more personal by changing it to "Talk to
someone about this, call 1-800-273-8255" or something similar.

Near some bridges there are signs that say "There is hope, make the call".

~~~
viraptor
A good idea, but won't work in reality. 1) You'd need a directory of such
numbers from every country. 2) For those where you have the number, IP-based
country location does not work, so some people would get a wrong number.

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reitzensteinm
I don't think needing a directory of numbers from each country is an
insurmountable task for a company with the mission of organizing the world's
information!

~~~
viraptor
Actually writing a network spider and page ranking mechanism and chasing after
an organisation in real life to keep contact details up to date don't have
that much in common... It would work the same as in any other company - i.e.
would require time and money.

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orblivion
Now all they need to do is call you (because you're logged in and have an
associated Android phone in your pocket) and automatically connect you to the
hotline.

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nkassis
Tried to see what the warning looked like but I can't get it to be produced by
google. Maybe google knows (through my search history) that I'm just messing
with the engine.

~~~
chaosmachine
Try this:

[http://www.google.com/search?q=suicidal+thoughts&gl=us](http://www.google.com/search?q=suicidal+thoughts&gl=us)

"&gl=" overrides google's location detection to the country code of your
choice. Useful for checking what results look like from different countries.

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damilola
Hr. Pasted memo that can and pouch production of milk shouldn't come to work
start from on the 3rd to 6th. But i left without permission from my supervisor
and is now a query. Help me solve this?

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artpop
I wonder if Google has correlated these queries (and what they know of the
user) against the obituaries.

~~~
ErrantX
highly unlikely, unless you have a specific reason for thinking so?

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smokey_the_bear
I wonder how this is affecting the call rate of the suicide hotline.

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DTrejo
[http://duckduckgo.com/?q=suicide&v=](http://duckduckgo.com/?q=suicide&v=)

Will this be added to duckduckgo?

