In case you've been living in a news-free bubble, the Google Kannada language controversy is currently the talk of the town. A mistake, rage and an apology later, we are still quite obsessed about what went wrong. Here's a quick low-down on the controversy and what might have led to Google's oversight. Yesterday, Twitterati erupted with several Kannadigas, including political representatives and activists taking offence over how the Google search engine depicted the Kannada language as 'ugliest language in India. However, it should be noted that the same search engine also called it 'Queen of languages in the world.' What followed was copious tweets and retweets asking google to rectify the offence and issue an apology.

The tweet that basically started it all

It reaches higher powers

"This is a very condemnable thing. If Google or anyone else behaves in contempt of Kannada language or insults Kannada, appropriate action will be taken against them," said Karnataka's Minister for Forest, Kannada and Culture Arvind Limbawali.

After facing falk from several political fronts, with H D Kumaraswamy expressing his indignation against Google in a series of tweets, sought to know why Google "behaves in an irresponsible manner."

BJP's Bengaluru Central MP, P C Mohan slammed Google and asked it to apologise.

The tweets spread like wildfire and google was quick to note, rectify the issue and promptly issue an apology. The apology which was also put out in Kannada "Search isn't always perfect. Sometimes, the way content is described on the Internet can yield surprising results to specific queries. We know this is not ideal, but we take swift corrective action when we are made aware of an issue and are continually working to improve our algorithms. Naturally, these are not reflective of the opinions of Google, and we apologize for the misunderstanding and hurting any sentiments."

So how did google get into trouble?

Google search engine is algorithm-based and these algorithms scale through copious keywords from websites and their online content. Search engine Optimization or SEO at work. When you type in a word on the search engine, the algorithm goes to work, scouring the websites where the words are frequently used and viewed by other users. They then provide the result depending on the articles which have related keywords. While the search engine might not be solely to blame for the faux-pas, the people who've previously exhibited those views on their websites are mostly culpable of the offence.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2021 03:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).