On Saturday, Jan 31, between 6:30 and 7:25 am, anyone who did a Google search during that time likely saw the message "This site may harm your computer" accompanying every search result, Google said in an explanation on its company blog. The incident was caused by human technical error. During these 55 minutes, Google users were directed to StopBadware.org, a nonprofit project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities who research consumer complaints. A London newspaper estimated that this glitch has costed Google 2-3 million of advertising income.
Google has been somewhat deified by users around the world. With so many depend on Google as the main if not only information source, we have to remember to question validity of the information we get online. This incident also shows the interdependence of the whole internet ecosystem. Even search giant Google needs to cooperate with niche players like StopBadWare.com to improve its products.
Sources: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11599839?nclick_check=1 and http://mag.udn.com/mag/digital/storypage.jsp?f_MAIN_ID=319&f_SUB_ID=2941&f_ART_ID=174812
No comments:
Post a Comment