Google Maps apologises after racist search points to White House

[JabbatheHutt]

Google Maps apologises after racist search points to White House

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 21 May, 2015, 10:11pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 21 May, 2015, 10:11pm

Agence France-Presse in San Francisco

The White House.Photo: MCT

Google Maps apologised on Wednesday after it emerged searches using racist language pinpointed the White House, home of President Obama.

The offensive scenario was brought to light after it was noticed searches combining a racial slur and the word "house" took people to the White House in Google's free online mapping service in some locations.

A search on Google Maps late on Wednesday using a variation of the racist phrase resulted in being shown the location of The White House with the description "iconic home of America's president".

It was unclear whether the outcome resulted from a search algorithm being duped or flawed, or was caused by a user taking advantage of editing capabilities intended to improve maps with local knowledge.

"Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologise for any offence this may have caused," the California-based internet titan said.

"Our teams are working to fix this issue quickly."

Google on Monday said it is sidelining its crowd-sourced map-making tool to implement a way to prevent bogus edits.

The Map Maker service became "temporarily unavailable" from Tuesday, according to a message posted online.

Earlier in April, one Google user revised the Washington map of the White House to include a new business called "Edwards Snow Den".

It was an apparent effort to highlight former national security contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked a trove of secret documents on US surveillance.