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Google turned me into a serial killer

hristo-georgiev.com

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Re: Google turned me into a serial killer

#91

Post by tzs »

> It turns out that Google's knowledge graph algorithm somehow falsely associated my photo with the Wikipedia article about the serial killer. Which is also surprisingly strange because my name isn't special or unique at all; there are literally hundreds of other people with my name, and despite of all that, my personal photo ended up being associated with a serial killer. I can't really explain to myself how this happened, but it's weird. In any case, I am now in the process of reporting this Knowledge Graph bug to Google.

I believe that there is a simpler explanation.

The Wikipedia article is there in that side box because it is the top hit for "hristo georgiev" on Google's main search page. The picture is there because it is the top hit for "hristo georgiev" on Google's image search page.

Re: Google turned me into a serial killer

#92

Post by acjohnson55 »

jeswin wrote: post #8
hpkuarg wrote: post #2

I'm glad this guy has a sense of humor about this, but I really hope that Google does right by him and that he doesn't get stuck in their Byzantine customer service process.

Actually he should sue them. The damage to his reputation and prospects are real.

He should sue to get it fixed if they don't fix it, but I believe he'd have to show evidence of harm if he were to sue for damages.

Re: Google turned me into a serial killer

#94

Post by Tenoke »

html5web wrote: post #40

Google your name from time to time. I do it to protect my personal information. I don't want my personal information, including my home address, email, phone number etc. to be exposed on search.

I literally just got my wallet back because someone Googled me, and could find an email easily since my site ranks well for my name so there's definitely some benefit to being exposed.

Re: Google turned me into a serial killer

#96

Post by kevingadd »

Tenoke wrote: post #94
html5web wrote: post #40

Google your name from time to time. I do it to protect my personal information. I don't want my personal information, including my home address, email, phone number etc. to be exposed on search.

I literally just got my wallet back because someone Googled me, and could find an email easily since my site ranks well for my name so there's definitely some benefit to being exposed.

Having your personal email on your personal website is a little different from someone having posted your home address and phone # on some 'pay us money for people's personal info' website, though, and the latter is what you're going to spot by doing searches

Re: Google turned me into a serial killer

#98

Post by ashtonbaker »

tytso wrote: post #88

I don't see what the big deal here. The serial killer really did exist, and has the same name as the author of the blog post. Searching for "Hristo Georgiev" using Bing and DuckDuckGo turns up the article about the serial killer as the first link. Why is this not "DuckDuckGo turned me into a serial killer", other than people hating on Google? Suppose his name was "Thomas Edison"; would the title of the article then r…

You may have missed that the photograph is not a photograph of the serial killer, but rather the author of the blog post.

Re: Google turned me into a serial killer

#100

Post by ghaff »

html5web wrote: post #40

Google your name from time to time. I do it to protect my personal information. I don't want my personal information, including my home address, email, phone number etc. to be exposed on search.

Some things are public records or, like email, are pretty much inevitably exposed if you do things in public. But fortunately a lot of the "deep web" stuff that used to be free generally isn't any longer. (And cell phone numbers aren't accessible nearly as much as landlines were.)
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