Bias in Google Image Search?

[MattSh]

Found this on Google Plus (that's sort of like Facebook, but not really). From user Ted L.


An exercise on Google Image Search:

1. Search "American" and look at the results.
2. Search "European" and look at the results. Compare with "American".
3. Search "African" and look at the results. Compare and contrast with "American" and "European".
4. Search "Asian" and admire the results.

I found the above enlightening.


WARNING ~ NSFW (Not safe for work) is your safe search filter is OFF!

[joshcryer]

1. Wow, that's jacked up. Interesting find.

[seabeyond]

11. what did you find? nt

[JI7]

2. because those searching for asian porn probably put in "asian"

while searches for white, black women mostly use terms other than african,european and especially american.

[joshcryer]

3. I only saw one pornographic type (wasn't porn) image.

The rest were just pretty Asian female faces (note, I only viewed the first page).

[Tunkamerica]

5. your safesearch filter was on

[MattSh]

7. I guess my safesearch filter was on too!

Not normal for me. Though I can understand why others would have it on.

[joshcryer]

8. Thanks, didn't even notice. I guess I'll keep it 'moderate' anyway.

Though the test remains true even if it's off.

[Bosonic]

4. Bias in image tagging/context on internet

Their indexing may not be all that it could be, but it is still largely representative of what is out there on the internet.

As for the asian image search, to quote George Takei http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzIZ_ygG-kQ">Oh My!

[Tunkamerica]

6. now do each of those in the respective languages. Obv. in english the results will be skewed.

also, asian as a word for a race while white and black are colors complicates things. And, I'm pretty sure it's an algorithm and not intentional bias. If someone types in asian and then goes to a specific link then it's considered a good match. If 1,000,000 do the same... If anything it's english speakers who enjoy porn who are biased, but I kind of doubt that since it seems there are huge markets for every niche.

[Tesha]

9. You're not familiar with "Yellow Fever", are you?

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/20/11-asian-girls/

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yellow+fever

[seabeyond]

10. american = companies. european = about countries. african = about countries

and race. asian = food.

arent all googles trying to figure out what the individual computer user wants? what did you get?

i have typed in men gain weight after marriage and all i get is.... "why women get fat after marriage" . didnt matter what i put in google search (t was for a particular thread looking up a study i remember) all i got was why are women fat

[seabeyond]

12. image. i have to start all over. nt

[seabeyond]

14. african was the most beautiful on culture. american and european mostly flags

but american had more like pt bull, and people dressed in flag. and asian individual and a lot of pretty young, some working on nudity/sexual.

[Brickbat]

13. This is a bias in photo tagging, which is "user-generated," not in the search formula.

[Aerows]

15. Wouldn't Asian people

Be using very different character sets for search results than Europeans and Americans? As would Russians, Indians and Middle Eastern people?

Just a thought. It's horrible - I'm not saying it isn't offensive, particularly since my two nieces were adopted from China - but I don't think the issue is so much bias as it is language differences.