Search engine Google has had its Hot Trends system hacked for the second time in seven days.
Last week a swastika appeared on Google Trends as a top queried term. It was removed and a spokesperson claimed that a link on a popular Internet bulletin board, 4Chan, was to blame.
The second violation cited the most queried term on Google Trends as no longer a swastika, but the querulous statement “?l?oo? no? ??n?”.
So far no one has determined how it happened. Google claims the Hot Trends list is automatically generated by machines and algorithms that detect hot or breaking queries.
But the nature of the text seems to imply that a childish hacker is involved rather than people maliciously sabotaging the system.
Last week a swastika appeared on Google Trends as a top queried term. It was removed and a spokesperson claimed that a link on a popular Internet bulletin board, 4Chan, was to blame.
The second violation cited the most queried term on Google Trends as no longer a swastika, but the querulous statement “?l?oo? no? ??n?”.
So far no one has determined how it happened. Google claims the Hot Trends list is automatically generated by machines and algorithms that detect hot or breaking queries.
But the nature of the text seems to imply that a childish hacker is involved rather than people maliciously sabotaging the system.
