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posted by martyb on Friday March 02 2018, @07:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the under-the-gun-to-do-something dept.

Google has banned items containing the string "gun" in the name on its e-commerce search platform, accidentally targeting many innocuous items:

Google Shopping, which allows users to compare product prices from thousands of online retailers, has removed all 'gun' search results - even if the product is not gun-related.

Online shoppers have complained about being unable to browse dozens of products such as Burgundy wine, water guns and music by American rock band Guns N' Roses. Searches for products including nail guns, glue guns and Arsenal Football Club's Gunnersaurus dinosaur mascot also returns the message: "Your search did not match any shopping results."

Google has banned weapons listings since 2012, however online shoppers have highlighted certain product unavailability since the Florida school shooting on Valentine's Day which left 17 dead.

The block could be circumvented using alternate terms such as "handgnu" or "fully automatic firearm".

Also at Engadget.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Justin Case on Friday March 02 2018, @07:24PM (23 children)

    by Justin Case (4239) on Friday March 02 2018, @07:24PM (#646563) Journal

    This is a perfect illustration of the fact, which should be widely recognized by now, that computers do not understand, they merely obey instructions, no matter how nonsensical.

    Except for self driving cars of course. They will miraculously be so smart and perfect that we can trust our lives to them. There will never be a situation where human override will be necessary.

    Oh and good luck with that trip to Gunnison, Colorado. Hope the SDC doesn't stop by the nearest prison on its way.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 02 2018, @08:07PM (9 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday March 02 2018, @08:07PM (#646585) Homepage

    This is a perfect example of the algebraic equation Jews + diversity = censorship + incompetence.

    Which not only explains the downfall of Google, but the downfall of America as well.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @08:26PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @08:26PM (#646596)

      Alcohol + shitbag = shitbag that spills all over

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by unauthorized on Friday March 02 2018, @10:40PM (4 children)

        by unauthorized (3776) on Friday March 02 2018, @10:40PM (#646671)

        low effort troll + dumb audience = butthurt + lulz

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @11:11PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @11:11PM (#646686)

          Aww don't be butthurt unauthorized, its just a little honesty to follow the troll. Maybe you should have less internetz in your diet and more fiber.

          • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 03 2018, @12:56AM (2 children)

            by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday March 03 2018, @12:56AM (#646739) Journal

            Google Fiber?

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            [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
            • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Saturday March 03 2018, @01:07AM (1 child)

              by unauthorized (3776) on Saturday March 03 2018, @01:07AM (#646742)

              Hell no! I'd rather die of e-starvation than let Google into my system.

              • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:26AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:26AM (#646776)

                Hell no! I'd rather die of e-starvation than let Google into my systemd.

                FTFY

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Friday March 02 2018, @09:17PM (2 children)

      by LoRdTAW (3755) on Friday March 02 2018, @09:17PM (#646639) Journal

      I think you need to stop focusing on the jews and look elsewhere for the source of that jackboot pressing on the windpipe of your dreams. Hint, hint: it's all in your head.

      • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday March 02 2018, @09:51PM

        by Thexalon (636) on Friday March 02 2018, @09:51PM (#646652)

        Well, in his case, based on the name, I'm assuming it's all in his bloodstream, while his liver is desperately trying to filter it away.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 03 2018, @12:22AM

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday March 03 2018, @12:22AM (#646725) Homepage

        There is a good reason for the recent focus on the Jews. In recent politics, from Weinstein to other media, Jews have been overrepresented for unflattering reasons this time -- although the news doesn't explicitly say it, look at the last names of the people involved and make your own determination.

        The reason why this is on-topic is because Google and Facebook are both run by Jews, and both are committing increasingly brazen (not to mention desperate) censorship of the third kind, which is the most obvious kind.

        However, the Mexicans have been pissing me off a lot lately, so they may have their turn again soon. The Blacks and Asians have been very kind to me for a long while.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 02 2018, @08:24PM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday March 02 2018, @08:24PM (#646593) Journal

    Right. A string search is entirely comparable to self-driving car image recognition algorithms.

    Your agenda is showing.

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    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 02 2018, @08:39PM (3 children)

      One of the big names in self-driving cars and supposedly most competent coding-centric corporations in the US just algorithmically screwed the pooch in a huge way. That's extremely relevant to any other code they write.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday March 02 2018, @08:51PM (2 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday March 02 2018, @08:51PM (#646622) Journal

        It's not relevant. They have thousands of coders working on very different tasks.

        Rather than a monolithic entity, Google is like a bunch of loosely connected terrorist cells. And the low energy Google Shopping cell can screw up without harming anyone but themselves. If Google paid that EU fine [wikipedia.org], Shopping may have made squat for the company over its 15 year lifetime.

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        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jmorris on Saturday March 03 2018, @01:55AM (1 child)

          by jmorris (4844) on Saturday March 03 2018, @01:55AM (#646766)

          Willfully missing the point. This is perfectly clear proof their internal processes have collapsed. No quality control, no sanity checks. One deranged SJW midwit can apparently check code into the production executable image for one of the most core services running on the Internet. Everything overrode by politics. And you seriously so out of the IT game that the very idea doesn't have you scared shitless at how out of control that place suddenly became? Google was the big throbbing brain super genius people with the nigh invincible command of all things IT. Do you want to get in a car controlled by these stupid evil fucks? Now imagine you have reason to know they mean you ill, you personally. Do you get in the car? Running afoul of the Clintons is called "Arkancide", we will need a new term for when Google has enemies liquidated. Guess we can just call it banhammered all the way to the meat?

          • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 03 2018, @03:38AM

            by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday March 03 2018, @03:38AM (#646806)

            I guess you've never worked in a large corporation. They are frequently more like a bunch of small companies sharing some office buildings, and even have separate accounting (they buy and sell each other stuff). There's some commonality with stuff like facilities and HR, but for how they handle business decisions, coding/validation processes, etc., it can be entirely different between business groups.

            For a good example within Google itself, just take a look at Google Maps and Waze. They're both owned by Google, but they're entirely different. Different teams, different algorithms, different codebases, etc.

            Worse, you'd think that a big company would try to be more consistent, and "leverage synergies" (to use some business-speak) and eliminate redundancies, but there's a lot of internal politics and managers who do empire-building, so many things are not done for the good of the company, but for the benefit of a manager or division head. The upper management is only so competent, and only has so much visibility to see this and overcome it.

  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday March 02 2018, @08:28PM (2 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday March 02 2018, @08:28PM (#646602)

    Except for self driving cars of course. They will miraculously be so smart and perfect that we can trust our lives to them. There will never be a situation where human override will be necessary.

    In general, I'm fine with the option of human overrides being standard. Even some ships in Star Trek have the ability to "go to manual" and allow the humans to take over controls.

    What I'm not fine with is the assumption that humans are necessarily better drivers than machines in most situations. That's because people are, on average, idiots. The smart ones are those that know they're idiots, the less smart ones think they're brilliant.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:04AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @04:04AM (#646821)

      The Enterprise has Manual override, but the UberWagen or LyftKar will not. Starfleet has some experience and intelligence, real-earth startups have ONLY their billionaire dream chase, lives don't matter, profits do.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:13AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:13AM (#646911)

        [quote]lives don't matter, profits do[/quote]

        Which rule of acquisition is that?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @09:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @09:41PM (#646650)

    This is a perfect illustration of the fact, which should be widely recognized by now, that computers do not understand, they merely obey instructions, no matter how nonsensical.

    So, what you're saying is, the computers have already reached the average human level of intelligence.

  • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Friday March 02 2018, @10:32PM (3 children)

    by unauthorized (3776) on Friday March 02 2018, @10:32PM (#646666)

    Ah yes, look at the worst case example. Definitely don't look for examples in fields such as industrial automation or medical equipment automation because you might find that when people's lives are at stake, software development is actually (mostly) done properly, rather than by cost-cutting on the way to the bottom.

    Automated cars don't have to be perfect, they just need to beat us at it. This is not a tall order, people suck at driving.

    • (Score: 2) by dry on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:39AM

      by dry (223) on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:39AM (#646779) Journal

      People suck at statistics too, which is why that self driving car better be close to perfect, otherwise that one accident will stand out over the 20 human error caused accident.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @06:47AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @06:47AM (#646906)

      people suck at driving

      Why so negative? Nothing can do better at the moment, living or machine. What is the basis for the "suck" verdict? You could just as well say every living thing sucks at everything it does.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:12PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:12PM (#647047)

        Have you seen people drive?

        Just because nothing else can do better, does not make the status quo good.