Yesterday, a Reddit reader first noticed that if the word “sell” is typed into the search field on Google Finance, the site redirects to the financial page for Apple Inc. Is it a algorithmic slip-up or some type of Christmastime Easter egg? Or, Google deliberately did that?
At the right side of “search” button and below the word “+Share“on Google Finance, there is a word “More results” (Red marked in the below picture). If the “More results” button is clicked, then a long list of other companies appears that have “sell” or “sells” in their company description.
Apart from typing the word “sell” or “sells,” if the word “hold,” is typed, then a long list of companies appear such as Yingli Green Energy Hold. Co. Ltd., Longwei Petroleum Investment Hold Ltd., Chinese Estates Holdings Limited and many, many more. That’s not all. If you type in “over sold,” then it’ll redirect to Amazon’s finance page. So, it’s possible that there’s some sort of algorithm slip-up.
When Google was asked about the matter, Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds replied in this way:
“This isn’t deliberate — our algorithms seem to be keying off of the words ‘sell’ and ‘sells’ in the description of this very popular stock symbol. We’re working on how to adjust things so it doesn’t happen anymore.”
Source: The Next Web
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