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Google gives ‘gaydar’ but only to US netizens


Google’s new tool gives out “best guesses" about the sexual orientation of celebrities but this new feature only works in the US and possibly other Western countries. Google is by far the world’s most popular search engine, using advanced algorithms to scour the net for data to answer any query – or “queery", as instinctmagazine.com staff would put it while wondering “Did Google silently roll out a gaydar search feature?" Those in the Philippines, or anywhere else outside the Western hemisphere, cannot avail of Google’s gaydar feature. How it works The search engine attempts to automatically detect the internet user’s location. You can only specify a location within the country of your current Google domain. Hence, it is not possible to set a US address on www.google.ph, the Google domain for the Philippines. But those in the US need only type in the Google query box the name of the celebrity and the word “gay" (or “straight" or “bi"). The top tier of their search result will generate these two lines: “Best guess for [name] Sexual orientation is [Straight, Gay, or Bisexual] “Mentioned on at least [number of] websites including [links to some websites] – Show sources – Feedback “ Reactions Gossip blog Gawker on noted that the google app “seems to only index celebrities who have talked about their orientation at length, either to come out of the closet or fight back the gay rumors." Sister site Jezebel pointed out that “if there's one thing we can trust when it comes to people's private sexual preferences, it's Google's algorithm." An article posted on Tulsa Marketing Online said: “Perhaps it’s accurate, perhaps it’s something one of the developers put in as an easter egg that got discovered, perhaps it’ll be gone tomorrow. But for right now it’s yet another Google tool that can be used freely from your computer." Dissent An “easter egg" is a hidden message, in-joke, or feature put in a computer program, web page, video game, or movie. But NowPublic.com sees the new feature as “a solution without a problem." “We don't understand why even one second of development time would be dedicated to a ‘gaydar’ feature. The results either confirm what is already common knowledge or leave the question open, ignoring the fact that it's 2011 and we shouldn't even give a damn anyway." 'Walking gaydar' Over here on this side of the globe, perhaps someone could be found who is like “walking gaydar" Remington in the movie “Zombadings" so as to clue in those idle minds wondering who’s in or out of the closet. — ELR, GMA News

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