“JFK’s execution” triggered some children’s middle school essays

“Kennedy was an interesting man.” At least, that’s the first thing you read if you pay attention to variations of the top search result “Did JFK support the death penalty?” Google provides 7.5 million results, but for some reason it starts with a Google document that looks like a middle school student’s homework.

The first page of results for the phrase “JFK Death Penalty” shows multiple sources. The second of these is an entry from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library dedicated to the law signed by the former president that abolished the death penalty in Washington, D.C. But don’t let the thought police tell you that we should rely on a certain library for its maintenance Kennedy’s “official” legacy.Google’s bots can see through the noise: The web giant decided to release a document called Sentenced to death Get the most authoritative information.

This article was first found on Twitter, opens strongly. “JFK was an interesting man. He made many decisions and took many positions on this planet,” the authors write. “On the subject of the death penalty, I believe Kennedy would have been completely opposed to the concept of it.” They cited several examples from the Kennedy administration, including laws cited in the Kennedy Library and the president’s 1962 commutation of a sailor’s sentence, changing his punishment from The death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. “Obviously, he seemed completely opposed to the concept of capital punishment,” the author concludes.

I’m not a teacher, but this feels like an A+ job to me. However, our star students didn’t write their names at the top of their essays, so they may have lost points for formatting issues. This leaves us with no obvious way to identify them. This is probably a good thing. People shouldn’t be subject to unnecessary attention just because Google is behaving weirdly. (However, if this is your assignment, we’d love to hear from you.)

Whatever it is that propelled that poor kid’s homework to the top of Google, it probably won’t last long. Writing about strange internet phenomena is often the kiss of death, especially since like the responsible little journalists we are, we turn to Google for reviews. The more you pay attention to an issue like this, the more likely it is that it will be resolved, but so far, the company has yet to respond. The good news is that we’ve mirrored this article for posterity in case Google sends it back to the source of bad search results.you can read herewith the relevant parts highlighted by your friends at Google.

Whether it’s a children’s paper or something else, it’s odd that a search would turn up a Google document for someone not specifically looking for that content, let alone the subject of a president’s policy stance.

In Google’s defense, the situation is somewhat muddled given the views of its namesake, former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, on the death penalty. And then there’s the tragic reality of John and Robert Kennedy’s unfortunate association with the word “death.” On the other hand, it doesn’t seem that difficult.

Over the past few years, consumers and experts alike have complained that Google searches are getting worse. This is a difficult question to measure; how do you tell whether a search result is good or bad? The company certainly has its own metrics, but Google isn’t about to tell the world that its products are deteriorating. I’ve asked multiple people at Google this question in the past. Most people swear that search is still great.But at least the situation has gotten so bad now that many people Add the word “Reddit” to your search Increase the chances that they will find something useful.

Suffice it to say, Google keeps trying all kinds of tricks on its flagship products. One, Google Search is increasingly favoring Google products, choosing your own service as the first answer in many cases. In fact, the company has loaded so many ads in search over the years that they almost spill over the edges of your screen.some searches filled all A screen with marketing content that you have to scroll past to find the actual results. At the same time, Google has shrunk the labels that show you are viewing ads, making things harder to parse. Criminals have caught on to this phenomenon.so terrible The FBI recommends using an ad blocker To avoid search engine advertising scams.

Search is also a casualty of the tech industry’s push to push artificial intelligence into every corner of the web. Google’sSearch-generated experience“Chatbot answers will now be pulled for some queries, although this is currently an opt-in feature. It’s not always that great. For example, we caught Google AI search provides justification for slavery and cooking instructions for poisonous mushrooms. Google is so enthusiastic about artificial intelligence that it has quietly removed the suggestion that content is “written by humans” in its recommendations for sites that want to perform well in search results.

Meanwhile, it has reached absolute levels of chaos as website owners desperately try to game Google and get higher on the page through SEO. In 2023, a Gizmodo survey found that tech news outlets CNET removes thousands of articles Because the team believes this will help improve the search performance of the site. Google told Gizmodo it doesn’t recommend the practice, though some experts believe the company’s official guidelines say otherwise.

Like I said, Kennedy was an interesting guy.