The Google logo is seen on the carpet at Google France offices, in Paris in this 2011 photo. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)
Why, Google, you’re a prude!
On the latest version of Android, the predictive text won’t recognize the words “sex,” “intercourse” or “screwing,” among others.
Poking around the source code, Wired magazine discovered an “obsessive” and “baffling” list of 1,400 words — many naughty, some just weird — that Google wants to protect its users from seeing.
The list includes “coitus” and a few more variations on knocking boots, plus some medical and anatomy terms and slightly racy words such as “panty.”
“Taken as a whole,” Wired concludes, “Google’s list suggests not only a surprising discomfort with sexuality, but also reproductive health and undergarments.”
There’s even a whiff of self-loathing. Two nonsexy words that offend Google Keyboard are “geek” and “Chromebook”— the latter being the name for the firm’s own line of laptops.
Users can still type any dirty word onto an Android screen themselves, but must do so the traditional way — every letter, from start to finish. That means overriding the keyboard when it tries to volunteer something cleaner. “Condom,” for example, will become “condition” if you let it. The solution, says Wired, is to go into the app’s settings menu and disable the word-blocking filter. Then you can have all the “coitus” you like.
Read more tech news and reviews at the New York Post.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.