November 25, 2009 4:47 PM

Site Owner Dumps Crude Obama Image

By
CBSNews
(CBS)  This story was written by CNET's Tom Krazit.
The owner of the Web site that had published an offensive caricature of Michelle Obama has removed the image, and it is disappearing from Google Image Search.

Google took out an ad earlier this week above Google Image Search results for Michelle Obama to explain why an offensive rendering of the First Lady was the top result in Google Image Search. But the Guardian noticed Wednesday that the image had been removed from the "Hot Girls" blog where it had been posted, alongside an apology written in Chinese.

Google Translate came up with this English version of the apology, "For this article was very sorry that this is the program automatically issued a document from the article. Do not the subject of race and politics make the discussion too radical and sincere hope that the world is very peaceful."

The image can no longer be found in the first five pages of Google Image Search results for Michelle Obama. In its ad, Google said "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."

Google also said that it doesn't remove search results unless they are illegal, violate its Webmaster guidelines against spyware or malware, or if the site owner requests the link be removed. It's not clear whether the owner of the Hot Girls blog requested such treatment, but a Google representative said the company did not ask the site owner to remove the image.

Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved.
Add a Comment
by barcar55 November 26, 2009 11:08 PM EST
And why would they no longer be alive? Bush was carictactured as a monkey over and over. People are so afraid of offending the Obamas by doing likewise. Yes, we all know the monkey jokes associated with black people. White people are open season for all kinds of nasty rascist cartoons, etc. Looks like a double standard here.

I have found that color has no barrier for how mean and downright nasty people can be. It is always some race making fun of another.
Reply to this comment
by dragnet44 November 25, 2009 11:42 PM EST
That's why I like communism in China. It keeps the population down...
Reply to this comment
by ToolMangler1 November 25, 2009 10:44 PM EST
Looks to me like there is a Chinese blogger that might not be online anymore. For all we know he/she might not be alive anymore!!!!
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