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

[david longcat]

I tried to use Asian google once but to be honest I was to distracted by their superior porn to try it's legitimate uses.

[Fred]

Horray for racial equality! Lets subdivide things up even more rather then just come together.

[Wouter]

What astounds me is that the creator of this system appears to truely believe that there are lots of white people out there searching for the Whitney Museum of Art... whereas black people only care about Whitney Houston. This article certainly gives an interesting insight into his views on race, but otherwise I dont see much point in seperating searchs based on race.

But what do I know. Im just an art loving, bank obsessed white guy. You know, like all white people are?

[BCL]

This is just silly. The obvious "solution" would be for Google to prompt people to enter their race prior to doing a search. Then the search could be tailord for a particular ethnic group. Ha, ha, ha. If you think that African Americans are upset with Google now, wait to see what would happen if Google actually tried to implement this "solution".

[Me]

This is ridiculous. Racism will never die because blacks won't let it. You people seriously have to have your own version of everything, don't you? Wouldn't that be called... ummmm.. oh what was that word? Oh right! "Segregation" You know what your predecessors fought so hard for? What they died for?

I know -- let's give them what they want: a black version of everything, and while we're at it, let's build a mile-high electrified fence around a few different states and pile them all in there. We can call it ignorant-racist-black-people-land. There! You'll have your own internet AND country! And wouldn't you feel special... Boy oh boy, I'm excited!

[cb]

Next thing you know they will want their own music channel or award show, waterfountian, bathrooms. their own collage, o wait. THAT IS RACEISM AT ITS BEST.

[MJ]

Ok, lets try this for example, if you are looking for George Strait, and if you type in just the first name "George", 31 listings down you see George Straight. I'm really thinking the easiest fix for this would be to learn to use a search engine.

[Holly]

This is about the craziest thing I have heard in a long time. Google knows no race or boundries. You type in what you are looking for and it comes up. If you are looking for Whitney and you want Whitney Houston than don't be a moron and not type in her full name. If you looking for diabetes and want black diabetes in particular than type in black diabetes. Good Lord. Blacks are always crying rascism but it is the blacks that keep feeding it to keep it alive.

[white_search]

I'm going to start a white search engine soon. It will exclude all black results. This cannot be challenged as racism since there is a drive for a black search engine....the reverse must also be allowed. It's only fair.

[MakoShark]

And what if a black person is actually interested in the Whitney Museum? Being black means you can’t be interested in art? Isn’t that a way to encourage stereotyping and segregation?

If you search google for "malcolm", you get Malcolm X as a first result, not Malcolm in the middle... is that biased against someone who, regardless of race, is looking for information on a TV show?

Of course not.

People shouldn’t be concerned about something so trivial. If the first result isn’t the one you’re looking for, you can always scroll down whether you’re black, white, gray, brown, red, yellow or blue.

[brian f]

I had heard that the LA TImes had its news gathering budget cut back and the news room staff was reduced...I guess this article is the fallout from that.

Why, with stories like this newsprint media is bound to make a comeback!

Keep up the good work, and just for future reference, I like my lattes with light foam, ok Alana?

[stu]

Are you serious? This is one of the lamest, useless sites I've ever seen-all they've done is dumb down search results...and you actually think this site is a positive? Frightening...

[Greg D]

This is one of the most ridiculous things I ever heard. Why would I be Googling
for a crack head X-Celebrity singer ? I would certainly be looking for an address or exhibit roster for the Whitney museum. Why all the segregation ? This is 2008. We do not need separate anything. Anyone with a brain knows how to narrow a search for there specific search. If they don't, go get an education. Black this, White that.. Hispanic that ... W H A T is wrong with Americans ??? Racism from every angle. Will it ever die...?

Stop the Racism, Division... For the record, I am a Black American Veteran.

Google rocks, there is no need for a ethic centric search engine on the web.

Have a non-separatist week.

[Arnold]

A totally ridiculous suggestion. This type of BS is what keeps the issue of racism alive. Why doesn't the moron who suggested this develop a hispanic Google; or a Chines Google, or a Jewish Google, etc. The world needs to be together, not driven apart by racist differences and foolishness.

[Angela Mister]

So black people care more about a washed up crack head than culture or money? This is self stereotyping. Shame on Black Google.

[Michelle]

Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous. Why do black people get their "own" stuff. BET, NAACP, BLACK HISTORY MONTH. Are you kidding me? Everything should be available to everyone. Apparently you dont want equalilty, you want to have MORE. Well thats just garbage. Quit being such whiney babies and get over it. YOURE EQUAL!

[J.D.]

Wow, introducing a racist search engine. In 2008. Keep stepping backward, America!

[Fluoric]

Michelle, what about White Entertainment Television. WET does have a nice ring to it. Makes me think of the old soft core Channel Cinemax.

[Christoph Gemes]

I cannot believe we are even addressing and investing in this type of online segregation.
When will this country start coming together as one. Or for that fact the world. We need to start changing the way we teach our kids. This is a fine example of racism is still alive. I still have hope for humanity, change needs to happen with us and our society as a whole. And that’s my 2 cents.

[Marc]

So let me get this straight.. Black people don't like art or banking? Only music?

1 step forward, 2 steps back.

Why don't they just call it bloogle? and put it in ebonics to further some other sterotypes. Way to go people.

[SWT]

Again, Blacks attempt to segregate themselves from the rest of America. THe more this contiues the more you will segregate yourselves into a hole. Attempt to capitalize on the fact that you live in the USA and be happy that you arent a dirt farmer in some 3rd world country.

[Lindsey]

It is fools like these that keep the races at distance. By continually drawing a line you build a fence.

I think this guy is the racist. Why wouldn't Whitney Museum of Art come up before Whitney Houston. The womanis a train wreck and and the Museum was founded in 1931. And why would the answer "Whitney Museum of Art" be a "white answer"? FOOL

[Wow...]

In reference to giving the users of search engines more power over their results, it's as easy as typing in more keywords. I don't understand why we're trying to cater to less educated net users instead of just teaching them how to use the god damn system. This is just promoting laziness.

[Daniel Tunkelang]

Interesting comment thread.

As my blog post should make clear, I'm pretty skeptical about the concept of racially tuned search engine--not because it's morally objectionable, but because I just don't think it will work. Knowing your race--or even more specific demographic information about you--doesn't give a search engine that much of an advantage in reading your mind. But, until Google or a worthy challenger embraces a dialog-oriented approach, we're going to see a proliferation of attempts like these to target relevance ranking to particular audiences.

Related links:

Thinking Outside the Black Box:
http://thenoisychannel.blogspot.com/2008/08/thinking-outside-black-box.html

Searching by color to nibble away at Google:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9704

[skid]

This columnist failed to recognize the demographics of whitneybank.com. Do your research. Historically speaking Whitney Bank is an African American financial institution. http://www.quantcast.com/whitneybank.com/demographics