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A Funny Thing Happens On The Way To The Lincoln Memorial …

By: Caleb Howe (Diary)  |  August 27th, 2010 at 05:32 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

… if you’re going by Google Maps, that is. See for yourself.

A reader emails that if you search Google today, on the eve of Glenn Beck’s rally, a search for Lincoln Memorial turns up, instead, the wrong address. And not just any wrong address either; it takes you to the FDR Memorial. Curious.

A quick look at Google Trends shows that Lincoln Memorial is, at the time of this posting, the fourth most popular search term. (Glenn Beck Rally comes in 7th, and “Restoring Honor Rally” is the top hot topic.)

Curiouser and curiouser. Maybe Neil Stevens can clear this up for us in tonight’s
“Tech At Night” column.

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  • wolfster38

    Who will be waiting at the FDR site? Maybe some of Obama’s union thugs? We already know Obama and Prince Harry like to use misdirection. Why have union thugs hold up signs misdirecting people when Obama’s Google can do a better job.

    Things like this is why I won’t use Google.

  • Mark D

    FTW

    • ywhyvon1
    • Return to Revolution

      plus I think Bing’s “Bird’s Eye” maps are better than Googles Earth maps anyway

      • Wine Country Dog

        I stopped using them years ago when they handed over search information to the gov’t. without any warrant or reason. They just don’t pass the smell test.

        There are plenty of search engines, Bing, Yahoo, Dogpile, Ask etc.
        There are other maps.
        There are other providers of email accounts.

        Why would I want to give google anything? Except I notice on many websites there is marketing and counting stuff going on as pages load. googleads, googlemetrics, etc.

  • acslater

    I am a Microsoft employee, and I can tell you exactly what happened. Someone in Google, probably someone very senior, has built a “rewrite” into maps search.

    Typing in “Lincoln Memorial” is now getting literally rewritten to retrieve results for “Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial”. So not only is that address popping up, but all of the search results below it are for the Roosevelt memorial as well.

    Since we’re talking about a Google employee, I’m sure the person doing this thought they were being very, *very* clever.

    Incidentally, http://maps.bing.com

    • redneck_hippie

      search result.

      See “EDIT HISTORY”

      They even bragged about it, saying, “You guys suck.”

      Classy.

    • MathMom

      I didn’t know Bing had maps. Guess it’s time that I give the “Don’t Be Evil” folks the rear-view mirror.

      Notice, that on Bing Maps, the Lincoln Memorial is labeled, but on Google Maps all the other monuments and memorials are labeled. But where the Lincoln Memorial label should be, there is just a little square. When you click on that, the label comes up.

      Don’t Be Evil, Doods!

      • cactusjack

        several hundred thousand patriotic citizens at one locale on the Mall and you have to walk in there anyway don’t you, no car parking right(?). Or, as the NYTimes will report it on page 23, “over ten thousand protestors disgruntled with social reforms they can’t accept, at, of all places, the feet of the statue of the Great Reformer (!!)”

  • Mayhem

    Or less fascist, at least.

  • fpete13527

    ….all content through their new high tech Alinsky cross-feed multiplexer ?smart? search engine.

    They are committed to better accuracy than other common web sites. For instance if you type in Sam Adams their smart search engine most likely will automatically bring you to Joseph Stalin. They are completely clear that that is what you really meant and they will take care of all your search needs for you.

    For their smart search algorithm, obviously anyone looking for the Lincoln Mem. really wanted FDR Mem. Similarly Ronald Reagan search would give you Woodrow Wilson. I don’t see what’s so hard to understand.

    I will accept whatever Neil’s determination is though.

    I use Bing maps.

  • mustango

    Google Maps has a feature where ordinary users can suggest updates to places — I did this once myself to correct the address of a local sports bar. Unfortunately this feature appears to have been abused, with the FDR Memorial getting multiple suggestions to be renamed “Lincoln Memorial”, so much so that it’s taken over the search result.

    It’s not yet clear to me that Google is necessarily complicit in this. At any rate I’ve reported the malicious edits, and we’ll see what Google does about them.

    • mustango

      … if you type in something like “Lincoln Monument” the correct information for the Lincoln Memorial comes up.

    • acslater

      The search engine is actually processing the query as though you typed in “Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial”. This can only be changed on Google’s end.

      My guess is the renames are from confused users who assumed the label was wrong.

  • tnredstate

    that an employee at a far-left company, which just so happens to control a large part of the internet, is playing around with search algorithms that directly affect those with whom they disagree? I for one am not surprised.

  • bk

    “where is the meeting about beating up glenn beck supporters”
    or
    “where do we pick up weapons before invading beck rally”

    or something similar.

  • kowalski

    If you want to see the map to the Lincoln Memorial without interference from Google’s Illustrious Potentates, I guess you’re going to have to use Bing. Madre de dios!

    The Lincoln Memorial

  • charlienosurf

    Using an edit feature similar to Wikipedias…

    Here’s the edit log:

    Changed 11 mins 59 secs ago by snaggerbooks
    Name: Lincoln Memorial (English, type: Preferred) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (English, type: Preferred)
    Geometry: Location moved
    Address: 900, Ohio Dr SW, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States, 20024 1850, West Basin Dr SW, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States, 20242
    Phone: 202-426-6841 202-426-6895

    Changed 1 hours 8 mins ago
    This edit is a suggestion
    Name: Lincoln Memorial (English, type: Preferred) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (English, type: Preferred)

    Changed 1 hours 40 mins ago by David
    This edit is a suggestion
    Geometry: Location moved

    Changed 3 hours 5 mins ago by Piotr
    This edit is a suggestion
    Geometry: Location moved

    Changed 3 hours 20 mins ago by Chad
    This edit is a suggestion
    Geometry: Location moved

    Changed 3 hours 20 mins ago by Chad
    This edit is a suggestion
    Geometry: Location moved

    Changed 3 hours 45 mins ago by Greg
    This edit is a suggestion
    Geometry: Location moved

    Changed 4 hours 46 mins ago
    Place removed: Deleted Place removed

    Changed 13 hours 50 mins ago by Crash
    Name: Lincoln Memorial (English, type: Preferred) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (English, type: Preferred)
    Geometry: Location moved
    Address: Independence Ave SW, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States, 20418 1850, West Basin Dr SW, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States, 20242

    Changed 15 hours 48 mins ago by Holly
    Name: Lincoln Memorial (English, type: Preferred) Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (English, type: Preferred)
    Geometry: Location moved
    Address: 1850, West Basin Dr SW, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States, 20242 1850, West Basin Dr SW, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States, 20242
    Phone: Deleted 202-426-6895

  • http://whereswalden.com/ Jeff Walden

    Click the arrow, look for the “move” dropdown and choose the “Move marker” option. I wouldn’t be surprised if their algorithm might not recognize abuse of this functionality, and therefore it’s being confused by someone (many someones, even) looking to screw with you. :-) Hanlon’s Razor, and all that. (Incidentally, I tried moving it and get back “Server error. Please try again later.”, which, again by Hanlon’s Razor, suggests widespread abuse is disrupting the ability to correct the problem.)

    To me it seems really tacky for Google to actively be interfering with this, and certainly not in the interests of their bottom line, so I still suspect this is more a Googlebombing-like phenomenon than one actively enacted from on high.

  • charlienosurf

    Interesting edits to the Lincoln Memorial:

    Changed 8 hours 1 mins ago by Brian Erst
    Geometry: Location moved
    Approved 7 hours 25 mins ago by Google moderator Valerie
    Approved 6 hours 58 mins ago by Google Moderator DanielaC

  • onehutu

    But it doesn’t appear that the Lincoln Memorial is far off, maybe half a mile. But the results do present a suspicious circumstance!

    Totally off subject, this is why no one should support the Google/Verizon net throttling proposal. “Net Neutrality” is real and our liberties are at stake if we allow lefties like Google to determine whose traffic moves faster.

  • joecollins

    http://www.glennbeck.com/828/ says the rally will be streamed live, for free.

  • Mary Beth

    The Lincoln Memorial comes up as the first option on the list.

    That being said…every listing with the word “Memorial” on it comes up afterwards and fills the screen with pin points.

  • HerbC

    If you are using a droid, google maps is installed by default as
    the “map” app — and it is returning the FDR memorial as well.
    Call Verizon, let them know they are being screwed.

  • johnt

    99 of whom are racists.
    It’s tough being abnormal & a leftist. You won it all in ’08, the nations health care system is being destroyed, we’re facing financial ruin, what more could a lunatic want.
    But none of it’s working, and the people are not grateful for the bag of miseries flung at them.
    So you play with maps like a twisted child.

  • Deskpilot

    SCUMSUCKERS

  • smagar

    hours after this first got reported—and I STILL got the FDR memorial when I googled for “Lincoln Memorial.”

    Neil? What’s going on, here?

  • Ausonius

    Greetings!

    I have not been able to visit RedState for over a month, but now I have an opportunity!

    In mid-July I wrote the following about a mini-hobby:

    “Since I have a wee bit of time tonight, I returned to something I began last summer: tracking the number of hits on the phrase ?Impeach Obama.?

    At one point, it reached over a million on Google, but then settled down – rather mysteriously, I thought – to a constant 500,000, despite the continuing drop of MAObama in the polls.

    Yahoo always showed more hits than Google, sometimes 2 or 3 times more.

    Tonight (July 16th) for the first time in months, I returned to this little curiosity:

    ?Impeach Obama? – 6.7 million hits on Google.

    Over 17,000,000 on Yahoo!!! Both of these are an incredible increase over what I was finding back in the winter.”

    That was written 6 weeks ago in July: tonight Google now shows only 650,000 hits on the phrase.

    And Yahoo? A mere 165,000 !

    Are we to assume that in six weeks 16.9 million hits connecting to the phrase “Impeach Obama” via Yahoo – and the 6 million via Google – closed down or trashed the page with the phrase?

    Do you remember Arte Johnson’s German spy catch-phrase: “Verrry Interestink!” ? :)

  • Christine (Trelaina)

    The only thing on Google that I wouldn’t care to lose is Latitude, which is a mobile service that lets you share your GPS location with others (and choose who those others are). My husband and I use it often.

    My internet world is rather limited these days (on purpose :D ) so can someone point me to a mobile product that has similar functionality?

    If I can get rid of Latitude, we can be an almost Google-free household (except for my husband’s work email…nothing to be done there).

  • MathMom

    Just googled for the Lincoln Memorial. Whaddyaknow! Google Maps found it! Who’da thunk?

  • swami7774

    “Lincoln Memorial” gets you the Lincoln Memorial.

  • mustango

    In a somewhat needless, but I suppose mildly amusing, tit-for-tat, someone has created a “Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial II” at the site of the Lincoln Memorial, and someone else an “Fdr Memorial” in the middle of the George Mason Bridge across the Potomac.

    Such are the nature of edit wars.

  • elluchero

    Google is the most biased, far-left “company” on earth. 85% of their employees vote hard left liberal. Go look it up. Talk about “fair” and “balanced” – what a crock. Playing such games is unprofessional.

  • fastrock

    Bing is good, but sometimes I do need to use Google, but instead I use: http://www.scroogle.org/

    Actually the site has link to scroogle scraper, ie near history-free, safe surfing

    A simple surf of their site will show they have no love for Google. Some is very funny.

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