Suicide is not an issue that can be handled lightly—every precaution that can be made to prevent someone from taking their own life should be implemented. Google, Yahoo and ask.com have all taken measures to ensure that their users searching for a method to commit suicide are met with as much resistance as a search engine can provide. When someone attempts to conduct a web search on Google, Yahoo or ask.com for the phrase “how to commit suicide,” the auto-complete feature won’t provide the search for you, and if you do type the phrase in its entirety, the first result is the large-font display with the number for the suicide hot line.
Anyone who types “how to comm—“ into the search bar of Bing.com is greeted with the auto-filled answer of “how to commit suicide,” and a web search provides related search inquiries such as “how to commit painless suicide” and “how to commit suicide quickly.” After this was brought to notice, Bing made sure the link to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website was the first result. Although this link is not distinguished from the rest of the links and the number is not made clearly visible, so the search result could be easily passed over by someone skimming the results.
Bing has recently released an advertisement campaign where users compare search results from Bing to those from Google, but the experiment has failed miserably on multiple accounts. According to webpronews.com, Bing left Google’s knowledge graph, a feature that is well-liked among Google users, out of the results given to test subjects, giving an unfair advantage to Bing. The “Bing It On” campaign has also been proven ridiculous by Google’s own SEO Matt Cutts, who posted on Twitter that a Bing search for “Bing It On” provides results for the movie and musical “Bring It On” instead.
Suicide prevention is an issue that needs to be taken seriously. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death in 2009 in the United States, resulting in the loss of 37,000 lives. Preventsuicidepa.org lists suicide as the third leading cause of death in 15-24 year olds, and the rates for children between the ages of 10 and 14 have nearly doubled in the past 20 years. When you account for the amount of time young people spend on the computer (96 percent of the 18 to 25 year-old age group uses the Internet, says pewinternet.org) someone in need of help may be more likely to turn to a search engine for answers than they would be to turn to a counselor or friend due to the easy access of information without being judged. In response, search engines need to be prepared to combat this kind of search query with a clearly visible “STOP, there’s help!” message with a suicide hot line displayed with it, in hopes that it makes a difference to the person reading it.
While Bing Senior Director Stefan Weitz has told webpronews.com that “in some cases we do prioritize the hot line,” I don’t think that’s enough. If Google, Yahoo and Ask can provide large-print, top-of-the-page messages to those searching to end their lives, Bing is entirely capable of doing so as well. It could be the difference between someone choosing to end their lives, and for Bing to make a gaff like this and not immediately making a clear effort to display the hot line number on their search results is unacceptable.
Samantha Bloom can be reached at samantha.bloom@spartans.ut.edu
In other words, they go against the grain of the careers
their parents had. I believe my exact words were “I don’t want to be your dirty little secret. The decline of the East side blues scene was disheartening, but, it also gave rise to the need for a fresh start, which came in the form of the next blues-only venue, Antone’s, founded by the late Clifford Antone, during the summer of 1975.
This is a good tip particularly to those new to the blogosphere.
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A must read post!
Try some of the other phrases listed with “taking pills” etc which Google does give you auto completed when you try searching on the results page. Also “how to commit sui painlessly” “suicide methods” “suicide painlessly” does appear on Google’s autocomplete on the home page. This is not about a movement, the search engines are there for a reason, to search the Web and provide results based on input. I highly doubt that little line would change someone’s mind. If they are looking on the web they are already going to do it or are just curiously pondering which is normal. The planning is the problem.
Obviously Matt Cutts would prove a competitor ridiculous.. what else?
I do not know why this made it to be an article.. take a look at the larger picture.