I'm glad I read this. Google's been on these threads a lot, because of employees leaving it, demonstrating stunted innovation, etc. etc. But, ultimately, Google still does a world of good through the choices and products it makes.
Shows the number for the Samaritans on google.co.uk, but nothing for me on google.com. Google.co.nz has a helpline, but google.ca doesn't.
I wonder who decides which countries to roll this sort of thing out to? Is it done by someone who just looks up certain countries helpline numbers first, or do they roll it out based on which countries are searching heavily on key terms?
Google have a ton of hard data on how people live - and die - and they could use it to really optimise how society helps people in times of vulnerability and need.
But before the wikipedia link on methods. All in all, I think it's reasonable mix between people searching for information on recent suicides and helping those who need it.
Perhaps not all countries have equivalent suicide hotlines, and thus they would not get such a notice?
Its really interesting how I feel really good about this use of data, but feel much more uncomfortable with (for example) using location data to tell me where to go to get pizza.
They haven't gotten around to adding this feature for Swedish searches -- the first hit is the Swedish suicide guide (talks about mental preparation, choosing a location, how to find the courage, practical details etc). Made me feel ill at ease.
There must be some geolocation going on - the Japanese Google.com and Google.co.jp are not giving out hotline #s from NYC. Is there someone in Japan who could test this?
Of course, it makes sense, since the hotline numbers would probably not work outside the country.
I'm in Switzerland. According to SERPs there doesn't seem to be a suicide hot-line here, so the search doesn't get any special treatment on google.ch, nor on google.com.
I tried English/French (it's the same word) and also German, but still no go.
The overwhelming majority of people at risk for suicide broadcast many warning signs. Often, they are subtle, but more often, they represent a loud cry for help for an ultimately preventable situation.
Very few people commit suicide on a whim.
I'd bet my life's savings that enough suicidal people search for the word "suicide" that this showed up in metrics.
Having worked at Google, I could take a guess at how these help numbers came to be a feature. Some search engineers were probably analyzing a question along the lines of "What pattern of searches result in unhappy users that don't come back?"
It resulted in a 9% increase of the "calls to hotline" metric, so you can just go ahead and pay him:
> In April we began prominently displaying the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at the top of the results page for certain search queries in the U.S. Since then, our friends at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline have reported a 9 percent increase in legitimate calls to its hotline.
My uncle took his own life two years ago, and part of his "cry for help" period was him using Google to research suicide. After looking through his internet history, we found it was on more than just one occasion. I'd be willing to bet that many, many people do the same thing.
