Google homonym breakage

By Geoff Richards, 2004 Jan 8 at 19:17

Google Ads falling down because of homonyms.

I'm just reading Tim Bray's article about management approval as a potential predictor of the success of new technologies and noticed the Google ads on that page. Amusingly, at the time of writing, they're all to do with fertility treatments and ovulation and stuff, presumably because the page mentions AI. He means artificial intelligence, not artificial insemination, of course. It's a good example of how homonyms can cause problems for search engines. Not an easy problem to solve, either. Isn't natural language a bastard?

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(nuggets of inanity)

Tuesday Apr 24th 2007, 16:54 »
Just took the annual web design survey that AListApart do. I don't realy consider myself to be a web designer, but I have been doing a lot of HTML and CSS lately.
Monday Apr 23rd 2007, 18:23 »
Strange, there appears to be a bare-knuckle boxing match going on in the field outside my flat. Wish they wouldn't make so much noise about it.
Thursday Mar 1st 2007, 18:47 »
“In its written form, Hebrew has no vowels, making it the ideal language for texting.”
—Said in jest on some Radio 4 programme just now.

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