Blog Removes Offending Michelle Obama Image

I found it odd how Google couldn't remove it themselves, but hey, they're the tech savvy people behind the world's largest search engine, so they know more than we do.

Anyway, I had seen the offensive image before but never in a million years thought of using it. Any casual reader of this blog knows I enjoy goofing on Michelle Obama as much as anyone, but even we have a minimum of standards and would never be so malicious.

An offensive image of first lady Michelle Obama that had topped Google Image search results appears to have been removed.

The image of President Obama's wife, which had been ostensibly photo-edited to resemble a monkey, was hosted by a blog called "Hot Girls."

When Google users typed "Michelle Obama" into the search box, depending on their Web browsers' settings, the first image to surface in Google Image's search engine could have been the offensive image.

But today the image no longer appears among the search results or on the blog. Instead, on the page that previously hosted the image, the blog's manager posted an apology in English, beneath Chinese text.

"I am very sorry for this article, andthat [sic] this is the program automatically issued a document from the article. Do not the subject of race and politics make the discussion too radical and sincere hope that the world is very peaceful," said the message, which is oddly dated Oct. 21, 2009.

Originally spotted by Search Engine Roundtable, after a Google user reported it to a Google Web search help forum, the offensive image was apparently first hosted by the Web site buzzoverm.blogspot.com.

Google last week removed the image saying the site hosting the image

Previously, to explain why the offensive image topped Google Image's search results, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company posted a message in the advertising space above the image which read, "Sometimes our search results can be offensive. We agree. Read more."

When you clicked on the corresponding link an even lengthier message appeared.

"Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google," said a message from "The Google Team." was serving malware to visitors. But, the photo later turned up again on the "Hot Girls" blog.

More background here.