Google today refused to remove a racist caricature of Michelle Obama that was the first result presented to users of its search engine.

The US firm conceded that the picture - which depicts the US First Lady with the features of a monkey - was offensive but resisted calls to take it down.
The disturbing image was the top result suggested to anyone who typed "Michelle Obama" into Google Images, the firm's picture search engine.

Complaints about the picture have reignited the debate about how far Google is responsible for the content it archives, and highlighted flaws in the complex calculations it uses to rank the "relevance" of results.
In a rare move, Google posted a message at the top of the results page for Michelle Obama distancing itself from the image.
The note, which appeared in space usually reserved for adverts, stated: "Sometimes our search results can be offensive. We agree" and directed users to a page explaining the technology giant's laissez-faire approach to dealing with distasteful search results.
While apologising for any offence caused, the statement read: "Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority."

full story here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6653365/Google-refuses-to-remove-racist-Michelle-Obama-caricature.html

Pic

Google is simply right outta order!

na dem put the picture?

SEFAGO:

na dem put the picture?

no be them be the administrator

u havent heard of unregulated freespeech?

Racism

chocomillo:

Racism

simple as thaT ,

DOes it matter?We all know she does not look like that.
This poster get time.

even though this is highly despicable,i am with google on this one,no to censorship

It is not Google's Job to edit their search results. They merely index and present results. All the people complaining should follow the links to the page where the photo is being hosted and then act against that site.

This is democracy in action!

Deal with it.

even though this is highly despicable,i am with google on this one,no to censorship

yep, I have seen worse pictures of george bush which make him look like an idiot (which he undoubtedly is) but interesting I havnt seen anyone create a caricature of laura bush.

texazzpete:

It is not Google's Job to edit their search results. They merely index and present results.

Google's Page Rank algorithm is not overarching, and can often be overridden by the administrators. This is evidenced by the fact that Wikipedia is the first website on the list when you type in the name of a noun into google. Therefore it is not asking too much for Google to bypass their algorithm and take out the offensive website/picture from the list! 

This is simply overreacting. . .blacks are too bloody sensitive. If it were a were a white politician nobody would break a sweat.

Google didn't put that there on purpose it got up the ranks based on its popularity amongst surfers (if people didn't like it so much, why then click it? ) and google should be under no obligation to alter that. Its a free world for petes sake.

I dont think michelle obama is a politician though

^^
And what difference does that make?

Does this have anything to with racism even the pics do look alike.,just curious

And what difference does that make?

well usually caricatures are a form of political satire. For example everyone is used to the caricature of Obama as having big ears, and long jaws- while always making hopeful statements. This is a beautiful one about bush http://www.sportcartoons.co.uk/caricatures/bush_b.jpg

But first ladies are usually rare topics- except of course if there husbands were getting blowjobs in the white house

^^
Truth is most american first ladies are always boring( think laura bush). . .there's a kinda mania about michelle obama so its inevitable she'd be caricatured.

agreed, there is some weird fascination with michelle Obama- maybe because she is very chic unlike some of the former women in the white house

Check out some foreign news sites and see hot comments & debate over one picture.

google are bloody hypocrites, one rule for michelle obama and another rule for china,

U mean dat they are afraid of china?

This is an offensive image agreed. Is google right not to remove it?
What is their policy on offensive images being assessed via their website?
What about other repugnant images ie child porn, etc?
Is it because this is a racist one with blacks and liberals are not allowed to object for fear of being labelled politically correct?

The Image has been removed by the hosting website "Hot girls"
u dnt fck with the white house, ever!

Whatz the url of the site?
Cos, i heard it was a blog

i searched michelle obama on google and didnt see the picture.

there was one which was a bit out of order though.

but people get caricatured all the time- no biggie perhaps.

donjon:

U mean dat they are afraid of china?

if u google tianannmen square in china, you 'll find nothing because the chinese government asked google to block the site, thank God common sense has prevailed, google has taken micheal's picture off the site, some people are so bloody ignorant, they can't stand a black man in the white house but more whites voted for barack than john mcCain,

Yeah! I remember tiananmen, where troops murdered protesting civilians.