Last week, Hristo Georgiev, an engineer based in Switzerland, discovered that a Google search of his name returned a Wikipedia entry of a serial killer.
A knowledge panel linking to the Wikipedia article of Hristo Bogdanov Georgiev, a deceased Bulgarian rapist and murderer of the same first and last name as the engineer, would appear at the side of results—alongside a picture of the living engineer.
However, upon opening the entry in Wikipedia itself, he found that the article didn’t contain a photo of him after all.
Thankfully, Google responded swiftly, removing Georgiev’s photo from the killer’s infobox once it was alerted to the mixup. Georgiev thanked the HackerNews community for helping him get it down so quickly.
According to TNW, this isn’t the first time Google’s algorithm has misfired. Previously, infoboxes falsely listed actor Paul Campbell as deceased, and mislabeled the California Republican Party as part of “Nazism.”
As with all technology, it’s unavoidable for mistakes to crop up every now and then. However, it would certainly be a shock to look yourself up on Google and find your name sullied by a notorious criminal.
Here’s what you can do should your Google Search return wrong information:
1. At the bottom right corner of an info box, click Feedback. If it’s an incorrect image, click the pencil icon on the picture to submit feedback to Google.
2. Select which section of the infobox you’re giving feedback on, or opt for General Feedback.
3.Enter details to inform Google if the information is false or incorrect.
Seems like Google falsely associated a photo of mine with a Wikipedia article of a serial killer. I don’t know if this is hilarious or terrifying. pic.twitter.com/rmAL7uQYy4
— Hristo Georgiev (@hggeorgievcom) June 24, 2021
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