Google analytics is a tricky thing and group of Redditors took it upon themselves to associate the word “idiot” with Donald Trump when searched. As soon as you type the word “idiot”, you will be greeted with numerous pictures of Donald Trump. 

© MensXP

This was possible thanks to an online campaign where many activists were unhappy with Trump's policies. The campaign manipulated Google's search algorithms and associated the word with the President of the United States. It was first sparked when a Reddit user posted Trump's image with the caption “idiot”. It was first reported by The Guardian and has now been trending for the past few days. 

What followed was an onslaught by a series of upvotes and similar posts that eventually led to being noticed by the media. The way Google image search works, it prioritises and helps compile images according to what appears in a generic Google search. India saw a similar campaign when a Google search for the name “Pappu” led to results depicting Rahul Gandhi's pictures. 

Google's each engine algorithm has come under fire in the past when a picture of a black developer and his friend was labelled as “gorillas”. Google fixed the issue immediately and apologised for the grave mistake. 

© Reuters

Google said in 2009 "Search engines are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Internet. A site's ranking in Google's search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query.”

Activists have been trying to prolong manipulating Google's search results so that photos of Trump keep appearing when the word is searched. We can only say that it is working as we googled the word today and it still shows Donald Trump's pictures. There are many tactics involved to keep this trend going. One of the tactics used is to keep using the word “idiot” in the headline while using Trump's image. The more hits these articles get, the more prevalent these images will be on Google search. Just like this article you're reading right now. This method is also referred as “Google Bombing” and is a common practice used by online activists to get a message across. 

We suggest you give this a try and post your search results in the comment section below.