ReveNews
The Algorithm of a Hate Murder
My eyes are bloodshot from fatigue. It’s been a long day. Nothing to complain about though. Will keep this short. For all you folks out there busy with search marketing efforts….the constant challenge is always to have the highest rankings…show up first in natural search results. However, can being the first search result prove fatal? You be the judge.
This past Friday, there was a shooting in Seattle at the Jewish Federation building. It was labeled as a hate crime. In case you missed it, you can read read about it here.
Anyways, reading the article, this detail stuck out: Seattle police said Haq picked up the two handguns and spare ammunition just days earlier, and appeared to have targeted the federation after a cursory Internet search for Jewish organizations.
As a web sleuth, I decided to conduct a few web searches on my own to get a sense of how this went down. My search engine of choice was Google. No big surprise there. They are the market leader. Google has even been baptized as a verb.
My search did not take long. I made a google search for “jewish seattle”. The number #1 search result? You guessed it; The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
I also made another search for the phrase “jewish organization seattle” and while the first few results are links to news stories about the shooting incident, while the Jewish Federation appears lower down (obviously this was not the case before the shooting) the #1 result up on top for “Local results for jewish organization near Seattle, WA” is also the Jewish Federation…the scene of the crime. The listing links to a google map with directions.
So, could something so seemingly trivial, such as a natural search listing, be the catalyst for a lethal crime? Does the FBI have access to google searches? Should they? Can it help them save lives?
Good simple sleuth work. Shmuly you should write yourself into a episode script for the TV show 24. Create a new sleazy underworld character to hang with Jack for one hour. Hidden webcam expert named Shmuly having been caught with 24 hidden cameras at the PlayBoy Mansion by one of Jacks team members during lunch break.
Invite me to the set when you make it happen.
“So, could something so seemingly trivial, such as a natural search listing, be the catalyst for a lethal crime?”
Oh, no doubt, and I speak from a very personal experience.
Whenever I happen to google ‘dumbass remarks’ I *always* get the urge to kill someone.