Chris Menahan
Information Liberation
January 4, 2019
A liberal journalist complained to Google on Tuesday that when she searches “Boston’s black neighborhoods” the “first result that pops up is a list of Boston’s ‘worst’ neighborhoods.”
“So I do a @Google search for ‘Boston’s black neighborhoods’ and the 1st result that pops up is a list of Boston’s ‘worst’ neighborhoods,” The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia tweeted. “How does that happen?”
So I do a @Google search for “Boston’s black neighborhoods” and the 1st result that pops up is a list of Boston’s “worst” neighborhoods. How does that happen? pic.twitter.com/RUaFgMcwNR
— Jennifer Mascia (@JenniferMascia) January 1, 2019
Mascia also complained about results in the “People also ask” box:
The next results aren’t much better: “Where should I not live in Boston?” “What are bad areas of Boston?” 🤔 WTF? pic.twitter.com/xwXmI6fEzp
— Jennifer Mascia (@JenniferMascia) January 1, 2019
Google’s public search liaison Danny Sullivan responded apologizing for the search results and said “you should find that particular featured snippet now removed.”
Apologies for this, and you should find that particular featured snippet now removed. The page was strong on the aspect of “boston neighborhoods” generally and likely seemed more list-like than other pages in the results, so got automatically picked as a featured snippet…
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 2, 2019
Thanks Danny Boy! You’re brave code manipulation just made those Boston neighborhoods safe for Jennifer to walk around alone at night!
— Dirk McGraad (@mcgraad) January 3, 2019
While Roadsnacks.net’s “These Are The 5 Worst Boston Neighborhoods For 2018” was the top result as a result of the “featured snippet” before this liberal journalist complained, when I searched earlier Friday morning it was fourth:
The…