‘Gmail’ Search Query Returns Unexpected Results in Photo Results

For some reason, typing ‘gmail’ as search query will yield unexpected results, Barry Schwartz discovered in his article at Search Engine Land.

Google’s Photo search, unlike the more prominent Image search, displays results culled from Picasa Web Album, a photo sharing website similar to Flickr. Picasa allows free 1 GB storage Google Account users. Google’s default image result is extracted from Google Images, a sophisticated search tool that allows users to fine-tune search results based on image dimensions, color, or type (clipart, photo, etc).

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Google SSL Beta Offers More Secure Search Queries

Search has become one of the mainstream uses of the Web. Better search result accuracy and diverse choices through blended search are among the reasons why more people use search engines (15.4 billion search queries as of March 2010 in the U.S.) to find information.

This trend is coupled with the proliferation of WiFi network that offer even more convenience to mobile search engine users. But the problem with Wi Fi networks is that it opens up risks for security breach. Just look at what role WiFi played in the unplanned gathering of unnecessary information by Google’s street car while mapping many cities in the globe. And it’s not just Google that’s capable of snooping on our website traffic and stealing sensitive information. While we could assume that an unsuspecting search query at Google is not a concern, think again.

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Google Thinks Michael Jackson is Ugliest Person in the World

Taking cue from Search Engine Roundtable, a search for the term ugliest person in the world yielded Michael Jackson’s photo on top of the results.

As the world grieves the loss of King of Pop, this unsuspecting search term obviously angers fans of Michael Jackson. One might ask how does a search engine decide on which photo deserves to to be displayed once such term is used as search query. I guess part of the answer lies in the explanation at Search Engine Watch posted almost three years ago.

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