Economy
What Google Autocomplete Thinks of the 'Poor,' 'Violent' Americas
Putting North and South American nations through Google produces some interesting results.
Perhaps the funniest thing about this map of Google autocomplete results for the Americas is what it says about Canada. Type "Why is Canada" into the search engine, and the first thing that pops up is the insulting "a country?".
But there's plenty more to be discovered from this search-based look at international stereotyping, put together by Cameron Combs, a D.C.-based policy researcher who's spent time in Latin America. Most notable is what it says about how language influences Google's sentence-finishing technology. Combs has colored English autocomplete results for "Why is (a country)" blue, and results for the same question in Spanish red, and the differences can be jarring: