RushmoreDrive: We need a black Google

Is Google too white? No, we're not talking about the white home page that's so bright it motivates some people to change its appearance to save energy. We're wondering if it is too white, as in Caucasian, because so many white people use Google that it returns results that alienate the rest of the population.

Johnny C. Taylor thinks so. In April he launched RushmoreDrive, a search engine that returns results more targeted at the black community (it's named after the North Carolina street where its offices are).

"Someone said to me, 'We don't have a white Google, why do you need a black Google?'" he said during a visit to the Times today. "And I said, 'Of course you do -- It's called Google.'"

By way of example, he said that a black person searching for "whitney," for instance, probably wouldn't be looking for the Whitney Museum of Art, which comes up first on Google, or Whitney Bank, which comes up second. Instead, Taylor said, the searcher would likely be looking for Whitney Houston, who doesn't come up in Google until No. 4.  That's why a search for "Whitney" on RushmoreDrive, which is part of Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp conglomerate, turns up the vocalist as its first result.

How does a website know what black people want? RushmoreDrive did ...

... a whole lot of research, watching where Web surfers who lived in certain areas with large black populations, such as Atlanta, were going online. The site's creators made note of what black users were clicking on and developed an algorithm that gives "black" links more weight. A search for "diabetes," for example, shows the American Diabetes Assn. as the first result on both Google and RushmoreDrive. But RushmoreDrive shows "statistics about African-Americans and Diabetes" as its second result and a link to the diabetes section on blackhealthcare.com as its fifth.

"It's a blend," Taylor said. "Results that otherwise would be much lower are elevated."

Search engines return results based on pages that they crawl through, but they can't crawl through every page on the Internet. RushmoreDrive also digs deeper into pages it thinks black people might visit more, such as soul food site chitterlings.com, Taylor said.

The search engine has already picked up advertisers such as Coca-Cola and General Motors and had nearly 800,000 unique visitors in June. Taylor says RushmoreDrive is a new kind of search engine that he says focuses on "identity search." In other words, it guesses what people are looking for based on the group they identify with.

Since search engines learn from what people are clicking on, RushmoreDrive had a small problem immediately after its launch: So many white members of the media were visiting the site that the results became skewed and turned up more "white" results, Taylor said. That's why the company is embarking on a big publicity campaign now, making appearances on the Tavis Smiley and Steve Harvey shows and sponsoring a 10-city gospel tour featuring Regina Belle.

RushmoreDrive also has jobs and news sites, as well as its own version of Google's Hot Trends, which shows what people have been searching for lately. Is it a black version of popular site Stuff White People Like? Well, no, there already is one, Stuff Black People Love. But in case you're curious about what RushmoreDrive users are searching for now, the top terms include actress LisaRaye, as well as Superheroines and Bernie Mac.

If you're not black, and you're jealous that now there's a search engine just for that community, start lobbying IAC for one of your own. Taylor says it plans to launch a new "identity search" site in the second quarter of 2009.

-- Alana Semuels

Semuels, a Times staff writer, covers wireless, marketing and the L.A. tech scene

Photo: Whitney Houston. Credit: Abdelhak Senna  AFP / Getty Images

Comments

[Hari Seldon]

This is moronic, as a black person I have to say information has no color, Google is the best search engine because it consistently returns the most relevant results. I suppose it could be described as U.S. centric, I'm in London so I notice this occasionally, but then the U.S. invented the internet and the web is most developed there so this is to be expected.

This is a non story

[Bart Hanson]

This is rubbish, there are Europeans, Asians, Mexicans and New Guineans who want their own Google results too you know!

[anon]

This is absolutely ridiculous. Google's pagerank algorithms are obviously race agnostic. If more were interested in "black" results then those results would be ranked higher.

Dumbest story I've ever heard.

[Hai Gais]

This is so idiotic and moronic.

[Makiba]

I am black and I always find any subject that I am interested on Google. I love Google just as it is. Who took this person serious and why did anyone listen to this foolishness. You can find any subject you want on all search engines that are available.

[Daniel Tunkelang]

I just wrote a review of RushmoreDrive on my blog, The Noisy Channel: http://thenoisychannel.blogspot.com/2008/08/thinking-outside-black-box.html

[Me]

I have used RushmoreDrive.com and find it much better than Google. It's not perfect -- and no search engine is. But as a black man, I love the results because they are better for me. If a white man, doesn't like Rushmore Drive, so what; it wasnt made for them. This is made for us. If this were another hip hop site for black people, you'd be fine with it because it fits the stereotype. We LOVE rushmore drive. If you don't, it wasn't made for you.

[Tre Jones]

Bart, you're on to something when you write "there are Europeans, Asians, Mexicans and New Guineans who want their own Google results too you know!" Maybe you all should write Mr. Taylor and ask him to create a search engine for these groups since the RushmoreDrive.com algorithm seems to work. I tried it and it works pretty well. Why shouldn't other groups of people build a search engine that can give them more relevant results? If it's better for them, why do you care and why wouldn't you try to use one that gives you better results?

[Alexander Orange]

Bart Hanson said: "Google's pagerank algorithms are obviously race agnostic."

Looks like the commentators are missing the point. While the PageRank algorithm itself is race (and country and any other demographic) agnostic, it ranks information according to how popular it is (number and prominence of links). As a result, pages favored by the *majority*, whether it be in terms of race or any other variable, tend to be given greater weight.

A search engine that gives additional weight ("bias") to a given *minority* perspective is simply a more customised, personalised service. It delivers results that are less relevant to the "average" user but possibly more relevant to some minority group.

I have never thought of this in the context of race before (I come from a ethnically homogenous country), but in terms of geographic region, profession and other demographics similar systems have been proposed before. If RushmoreDrive turns out to be successful, perhaps we will begin see more customised search engines hitting the market.

[Daniel Tunkelang]

To those who are dismissing RushmoreDrive on principle: I suggest you actually try it. I find the quality to be solid and, in my brief experience, comparable to Google's. And I'm not even black.

Which raises the question in my mind as to whether the black-orientedness of RushmoreDrive is real or a marketing ploy. I first thought it was just a re-skinning of Ask.com (they're both owned by IAC and have similar functionality and design), but the results are clearly different.

But, just for grins, try querying "soca" on any of the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask). The top hit is consistently about soca music. But not on RushmoreDrive, where the top two hits are the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the Soccer Organization of Charlottesville-Albemarle.

I know, it's just one example. But it's enough to make me wonder whether RushmoreDrive is more a branding strategy than an technology play. Nothing wrong there--there isn't much of a difference between Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft either.

Bart and Tre: no joke. Check out http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080410-090845

[vint cerf]

To Hari Seldon (great name!),

The WWW was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (A Briton) while working at CERN. Today, he runs the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As to ethnic search preferences, if there were clear indicators of ethnicity in the hyperlinks from one website to another, one could probably make automatic an ethnic preference in the ranking algorithms. Absent such a reliable indicator, I think it would require more substantial manual effort to identify which links are indicative of ethnic preference or interest. So a fairly important question for any search system that purports to offer an ethnic preference is to scale up to the full size of the Web's contents and to continue to grow with it. Scaling and rapid response are really big challenges for any search system.

vint

[Syndam]

Way to contribute to the "Us" and "Them" mentality that already dominates this country. Can't we all just use the Internet together...

[steve miller]

I love how all black people are homogeneous and have such similar viewpoints and wants. Who knew that they all thought alike? I mean, white people like poetry and classical music, and black people like hip-hop and chitterlings. It's like we get to experience the glories of Jim Crow but without all the negative connotations.

Separate and perhaps equal. I like it!

[Jon]

The government predicts that in less than 30 years that "whites" will be a minority in the USA. So with that in mind any pattern created on the "white majority" will be outdated and overall useless shortly. Not a good plan for the long term so I hope they rake it in while they have the chance.

[adam]

This is so ridiculous. It is basically saying that if a black person is searching for "whitney" it is likely we won't be looking for the Whitney Museum or the Whitney Bank.Why not! That is stereotyping, profiling and blatantly racist. So if we are looking for a restaurant to dine out, what will be ranked at the top of the search, Popeye's,Church's,Mickey Dee's?

By doing something like this you play right in to "their" hands. There are practically segregated schools, segregated churches, segregated neighborhoods, now a segragated world wide web?
Come on man!

[James]

Relax people! Everyone knows black people are unable to type "Whitney Houston". They are only capable of typing "Whitney". Same with "chitlins". Black google knows black people want chitlin recipes! On white google you have to look ALL the way down to the fourth listing for chitlin recipes!

[Amazed]

Wow. Rushmore is deliberately trying to segregate society after years of society trying to adapt to everyones needs. Amazing that they even get airtime.

And who cares what colour you are anyway? Does 'being black' mean you're too lazy to read all the results? I bet ol' Whitey has to look past the first result, so why is it too wrong for everyone else?

[Rob]

"It's a blend," Taylor said. "Results that otherwise would be much lower are elevated."

Yea! An affirmative action search engine!

[chinanski]

You guys are giving free ink to such an exceptionally bad idea for a search engine?

Really?

If you ever had any question why the LA times is going down the whole, I will reference this among many of their other stories that they saw fit to print despite ZERO news value.

[ID10t]

I can't believe you got paid to write this trash.

[Search]

Race is just skin color. And search results.

[Chris]

Here's an idea: Search for "Whitney Houston" instead of "Whitney!" After all, Mt. Whitney is way bigger than a washed-up druggie.

[Anonymous]

As a black man, I take deep offense at Mr. Taylor's implication that I care more about a washed-up pop singer than I do an art museum.

[(A]

Hold on: Google lists pages by the number of links to them. So its not so much google's problem as it is the internet's problem.= On the other hand, someone could make quite a bit of money with a taylored search engine. Though by definition that would be a gimic, gimics sell.

[skid]

Whitney Bank has their HQ in New Orleans. Dumb has no color. Just sayin'...