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20-Year Old Behind Pranks On Google
By Daya Baran at July 21, 2008 0 Comments
A twenty year old who with the help of his mother’s credit card, launched 4chan from his bedroom is behind all the pranks on Google. Ten days ago a Swastika appear as the top trend on Google, then six days ago “ǝlƃooƃ noʎ ʞɔnɟ” appeared as the top trends.
A post on 4chan instructed users to Google ‘…#21328;’. When thousands did, they discovered that it was a piece of code which, when processed by a web browser, translates into a swastika. Their collective queries sent the symbol soaring to the top of Google’s Hot Trends.
Then last week 4chan asked users to search for ‘Scientology is a cult’ and, written upside down, the words ‘ǝlƃooƃ noʎ ʞɔnɟ‘. The same thing happened again, their collective queries sent the phrase soaring to the top of Google’s Hot Trends. In both instances Google had to remove the top query. However it is getting very embarrassing for an organization that keeps boasting that it is hiring “smart” people.
4chan is a web site with a very simple layout where anyone can post anything on any subject. Users do not need to sign up and create an account. The site has 8.5 million page views a day and 3.3 million visitors a month.
