A tipster tells us his boss searched Google Products for a "'Spit Happens' t-shirt" for his infant. Google found him a suitably innocent bodysuit on CafePress.com. It also found him a pair of gay porn videos, one called Nasty Nasty featuring "a stunning young man, the spitting image of a young Ben Affleck," and another called Bedrock, featuring actors who "take turns pounding each other on a bunch of iron beds," — ouch. We're not sure who to blame for the confusion here.
Google is the one whose X-rated product directory turned up even when the searcher turned on "moderate filtering." On the other hand, say "spit happens" to most any man in the 18-to-34 year old demographic, and you'll either get a jovial fist bump or a politely restrained grimace. The phrase hardly connotes innocence. And the algorithm tries to give the people what they want. Maybe Google knows something you don't?
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