Via Amanda Marcotte, a data analysis at the New York Times reveals disturbing gendered biases on what parents search on Google about their children. (Example query = “Is my daughter ugly?”) Some key findings:
- For every 10 queries about boys being overweight, there were 17 about girls being overweight
- For every 25 queries about boys being gifted, there were 10 about girls being gifted
- For every 10 queries about boys being ugly, there were 26 about girls being ugly
Now, there has been some interesting commentary about this but I’ll spare you. I think society’s shittiness is documented pretty well here and stands without argument. But I want to point out an opportunity.
For a lot of search queries, Google doesn’t hesitate to give an answer directly, above or beside the search results. For example:
Or even this:
In 2014, Google will only expand this functionality. So if there are any Google search engineers reading this, some shitty parental queries can be answered directly:
You’re welcome, Google.
PS. He said soul!!
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