Blog Post: A teenager has accidentally pointed out Google News' credibility problems.A teen-ager has accidentally pointed out Google News' credibility problems.
Fifteen-year-old Tom Vendetta writes of being motivated into devilishness by an article on fooling Google News he found on the Digg Web site.
Using a free newswire service, he circulated a fake, typo-riddled press release claiming he'd been hired by Google. In the release, Google co-founder Larry Page is quoted as saying Vendetta's salary was only to be used for his own education.
Vendetta writes of only wanting to fool his mates, and quickly forgetting about the release.
But Web crawlers took over, and soon enough the bogus news was listed alongside other Google employment news in Google News. Vendetta even got an email from a Google employee, he writes of here.
Ever since Vendetta's blog-confessional of March 12 ("I'm sorry," he wails), the story's trail of Internet Web sites has begun disappearing.
For one thing, Vendetta's press release is no longer available at its original source.
Also, it's apparent Google's done something to rectify the situation. A search of Google News now for Tom Vendetta no longer returns the press release. Of the three listings that do come back, two are news stories concerning the hoax.
But Vendetta's message, whether he meant to deliver one or not, seems to be ringing loud and clear at Google, and the blogosphere.
Also, Google has managed to cache a version of the Vendetta's press release.
So, his hoax is kept alive by the very people being fooled.
Check out Ben Charny's Google Watch blog.
