White People Stole My Car: Google Trends FAIL

by Truemorist | August 26, 2009 at 09:13 am

327010 views | 67 Recommendations | 19 comments

Have you been wondering why "white people stole my car" has been one of the hottest search terms on Google for the last few days? Well, after a bit of investigation, your humble Truemorist has discovered that Google is a spam victim ... and so are you, if you clicked on any of the spam links that come up when typing "white people stole my car" into Google search.

Spammers somehow managed to make "white people stole my car" appear on Google Trends and lead people to websites filled with spam and viruses (Truemorist recommends that you avoid clicking on most of the links that come up when searching for "white people stole my car" for the safety of your computer and your very soul). How the spammers achieved the "white people stole my car" coup is still unclear. Maybe they used robots, maybe they used specially-trained monkeys .... in any case, a handy little tool called Google Insights indicates that they've been going at it since August 19.

Funnier yet, when people initially began to search for "white people stole my car", Google suggested that they might actually have wanted to search for "black people stole my car." Truemorist wonders if this indicates anything about race relations in the United States, because, according to Google Insights, 100% of the people searching for "white people stole my car" were from the United States. Perhaps, Caroline Tagg, the woman who acquired a PhD in texting, could shed some light on the matter...

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Susan in the US (not verified)

at 09:20 on August 26th, 2009

Yes, it is an indication of race relations in the US. You would have to be blind to say that there's ever a time when race is NOT an issue in this country. Racism exists everywhere, but here it's a million times worse (fueled in part by an insistance by certain people that we deny racism ever even existed in this country).

Ash Ley (not verified)

at 10:37 on August 26th, 2009

Racism is still alive they just be concealing it.

mike jones (not verified)

at 11:30 on August 26th, 2009

Racism is in your mind. People will always hate somebody for some reason. The key is to avoid these people. Don't dwell on it and say I'm a victim, move on. If someone doesn't give you a job because your black, why would you want to work there anyway??? I'm sure there is a black person in the U.S. that does not like white peope, yet we never talk about reverse discrimination. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpto keep "Racism" alive. with out it you would have nothing to complain about. Blacks were brought up being told that every white person hates them, NOT TRUE. How did Oprah, Shaq, bill cosby, sammy davis jr, the list goes on and on. How did these people get so successful, they didn't care about being black, they worked hard and MADE themselves successful. Stop blaming everyone for your problems and take responsibility for your own life. If you let white people or any people hold you back in life, its your own fault. YOU are entitled to NOTHING, earn it like the rest of us. P.S. I'm black!!!

Mudassarn Nassar (not verified)

at 11:45 on August 26th, 2009

Mike,

Your words should be written into gold and displayed all over the world. Not HIV, Not terrorism, not nukes , not poverty the biggest problem our world face today. It is the sheer lazyness and irresponsibility of certain part of our society. The easy way out for them is to play victim and cry foul in every opportunity.

Matt F (not verified)

at 11:18 on August 26th, 2009

Wondering if either of you two have ever traveled outside the US. Not just to a resort or vacation spot, but actually mingled with the local population. Most of South America for example is deeply and overtly racist. And not just racist but sexist, aesthetist, xenophobic, and homophobic. America is despite it's problems is one of the most fair and non-prejudice countries in the world. Ever been to Switzerland? Germany? Chek republic? China? You people have no idea what you are talking about. The reason this country is as advanced as it is socially is because of it's history of slavery, and it's abolishment and reform.

JS (not verified)

at 11:55 on August 26th, 2009

I've been to those countries and grew up outside the US (my mother is an American who had me overseas). I had never experienced racism to the extent that it exists here in the US. While it does exist in other places it is not in your face as much as it is here. Having said that the US still is the best place for opportunities and growth. So while I understand you defending the US you also have to acknowledge that it is not the Graden of Eden by any stretch.

All Lee (not verified)

at 11:20 on August 26th, 2009

Cry me a river.

Robbob (not verified)

at 11:48 on August 26th, 2009

The other reason there have been so many searches in the past couple days is that there have been text and e-mail forwards going around that has a screen shot of a Google search. In the search area it reads "white people stole my car" and underneath is the Google suggestion "Did you mean: black people stole my car". I'm sure after receiving the forward people are trying it, to see if it works.

really? (not verified)

at 11:49 on August 26th, 2009

So, you acknowledge that the Google suggestion was a funny addition to this story and yet credit the actual trend to spammers? Most people were searching for this term because of the Google suggestion. Spammers may have taken advantage of the opportunity but they were not the cause. In fact, I can't reasonably see a sequence of actions that spammers would create an arbitrary "trend" to then take advantage of people using that trend. People were searching for it to witness the racist results.I, for one, found this article after seeing the picture of the suggestion and entering the search term.

IrishWonder (not verified)

at 11:53 on August 26th, 2009

>Truemorist wonders if this indicates anything about race relations in the United States, because, according to Google Insights, 100% of the people searching for "white people stole my car" were from the United States.This really indicates nothing except for the fact that Google's Search Trends can be spammed much easier than one would think... e.g. by running a simple script from one IP or a few IPs even in the same location (see how the majority of searches comes from New York?) Now it will get slightly diluted because of all the people searching this phrase just to see what comes up - but I guess initially it was even more homogeneous.

Not Given (not verified)

at 11:57 on August 26th, 2009

No, this is because it was on reddit, wow hidden meaning stupidity

Joe Fox (not verified)

at 12:01 on August 26th, 2009

It is a text that is going around with a google picture of "did you mean: black people stole my car" when you google "white people stole my car"

george_e0 (not verified)

at 12:04 on August 26th, 2009

wanna know why it's being searched? twitpic.com/fc1mb

alia_d

at 12:20 on August 26th, 2009

Thanks for pointing out the link. I added the picture to the story.

Simcom (not verified)

at 12:41 on August 26th, 2009

"Spammers somehow managed to make "white people stole my car"Google Trends and lead people to websites filled with spam and viruses" lol! People saw the image where google suggests "black people stole my car" and decided to see if this is actually what google suggests. Obviously. How this completely eluded you is beyond me. Thanks for the laugh!!