Google has apologized for the offensive Michelle Obama picture. The problem is, it does not violate Google's webmaster guidelines. The guidelines don't warn against posting anything offensive.
And Google is saying it won't remove content simply because it is "unpopular". "Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the internet," it says. However, it will remove pages and sites that violate its webmaster guidelines or if required by law or if asked to do so by the website itself.
The Google webmaster guidelines do contain warnings — against deceiving internet users. The quality guidelines begin by saying:
I checked the guidelines after reading Google's apology for the Michelle Obama picture. It says:
Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google.
Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Internet. A site's ranking in Google's search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query.
The beliefs and preferences of those who work at Google, as well as the opinions of the general public, do not determine or impact our search results. Individual citizens and public interest groups do periodically urge us to remove particular links or otherwise adjust search results. Although Google reserves the right to address such requests individually, Google views the integrity of our search results as an extremely important priority. Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it. We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our Webmaster Guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page.
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