I'm watching Letterman right now, and he just delivered the Top Ten List: Top Ten Signs Your Kid Spends Too Much Time on the Internet. In the lead-up to the list, Dave explained that he himself spends very little time online, but recently he wanted to look up where to buy the toy tractors beloved by his young son. He Google it, and the sixth result was "Wives with Big Breasts Want to Give You Free Pix." Who knows if it's true, but Google couldn't buy worse publicity: a major celebrity announcing that his Google experience was poor, ruining a rare and tentative venture into the online realm.
David Letterman Slams Google
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. He's lying.
For two reasons. #1, a google search for "toy tractors" with safe search off returns no adult results and safe search defaults to "moderate" which would, with a high degree of reliablity, filter out any such links. There are two possible explinations.
#1, he's just plain lying. He was paid by Yahoo or Teoma or someone to lie.
#2, he was using his son's computer who is a perv, he had disabled safe search and used googles personalized search to search for "hot babes on tractors" or something like that. Then personalized search saw tractor and thought hot babe. Yes, it can happen with personalized search.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Adam Jacob Muller
3. If someone tells you a joke about a guy in a bar with a parrot on his shoulder (I forgot the rest of the joke), is he lying?...NO!
He's just telling a joke.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Tom W
5. well, he hasn't been funny in twenty years, why should start to make jokes now?
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by old cranky guy
6. Its called comedy, we all know adult stuff pops up on the internet all the time, its not giving google a bad name, its just giving people a good laugh.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Dew_stin7@hotmail.com
8. Jeez...its only a joke..
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Ron Krauter
9. Google seems to have this wonder touchy-feely image to it... Letterman slams it and everyone gets upset? Personally I have had lots of problems with Google and their services, and I know others who have too.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by jp
10. My god...do you HEAR yourselves! You are so busy lining up to give Google oral sex that you have lost all sense of humor and reality. It is a joke people! And by the way, Google is NOT the greatest thing to happen to the world. Maybe YOUR world, but that is really sad for you.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by QC86
11. This is one of the most idiotic weblog posts I have read in a long time.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by leo
12. Yeah, it's just a joke. It's lame, cause "every search returns porn" is a 90s joke, but it's not a huge slam on Google. And it can't hurt business - no one will say "I don't know what Google is, but although I would otherwise use them, next time I will not." Anyone who knows nothing about Google but what Letterman says, is not getting online any time soon.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Nick Douglas
13. Anyone who says Google isn't a Godlike company should watch this 8 minute video. Although, most people that should see it have already seen it by now.
http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Elmo Jub
14. Gosh, that went over well [g]. Thought I'd try throwing in a soft post at the start of a weekend. I've got to do that more often; obviously demand for it is running high. Anyway, to clarify:
1) I know it was a joke.
2) Jokes sometimes have impact beyond the punch line.
3) I know it's not a huge deal.
4) My point wasn't about Letterman announcing that Google delivers porn; it was about Letterman announcing that Google delivers irrelevancy, when the top ten results are supposed to be pure gold.
5) It doesn't matter whether it was true.
15. I think it was simply a joke. However, I've seen statistics that say a lot of people go online to look for pornography pictures, videos, etc. His comments won't harm google in any way, just give it more publicity. How many people went and looked for tractors after his joke? More adsense money from those clicks.
16. I think it was simply a joke. However, I've seen statistics that say a lot of people go online to look for pornography pictures, videos, etc. His comments won't harm google in any way, just give it more publicity. How many people went and looked for tractors after his joke? More adsense money from those clicks.
17. I can't believe you geekazoids are taking David Letterman's comments so seriously. I think you have spent too much time googling yourselves. Get out of your parents' basement and go get yourself a girlfriend.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Striker
18. I can't believe you geekazoids are taking David Letterman's comments so seriously. I think you have spent too much time googling yourselves. Get out of your parents' basement and go get yourself a girlfriend.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Striker
19. Did you say they spend too much time oogling? I thought so, you guys have way to much time on your hands if you expect a comedian to be serious....Lying? You need to get serious, or take a chill.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Blokk
20. It didnt hurt Google. He is a Comedian. Come on!Google and David Letterman both got Publicity. However, Google has its faults just like anything else!! As David Letterman.
http://www.sherylsenhancementboutique.com
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Sheryl Keyworth
1. The "thrust" of the joke is that the internet is largely successful due to the massive popularity of porn.
I'm sure Google's name was only used because it would be recognized by most of his viewers as a search engine. The joke would have fallen flat if he had referenced a search engine like teoma.com.
Don't take Letterman too seriously. It's supposed to be comedy!
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Tom W