Looks like Google heeded Stephen Colbert’s threat, and has manually fixed the quick answer for the comedian’s height, which Colbert pointed out last Wednesday was off by a half inch.
“I was horrified to learn that the Google celebrity profile of me lists my height as five-ten,” reported Colbert in his ‘Who’s Attacking Me Now?’ segment of The Colbert Report, “I am five-eleven.”
“Fix it, or I will fix you, Page,” threatened Colbert.
While Colbert addressed Google CEO Larry Page directly, saying he wanted a retraction, investigation, apology, and a cash settlement, it looks like all Google is giving him is a half inch.
Since the show’s airing, Google has updated the quick answer for the comedian’s height, now listing Colbert as 5′ 10.5″ (which Google coverts to “1.79m-ish”).
The quick answer for Colbert’s height also includes references to Larry Page and Conan O’Brien – who Colbert called out during the segment – as well as Jon Stewart, simply listing his height as “shorter” than Colbert.
While the mock feud between Colbert and Google may prove Google has a sense of humor, it’s also highlights the problem with Google’s increasing movement to provide direct answers in search results.
As we’ve reported in the following stories from our partner site at Search Engine Land, there’s always a chance Google will pull incorrect information:
“The challenge Google faces is that it really doesn’t ‘know’ anything — it only gets answers from others, and those answers, not vetted by human beings for accuracy, can be wrong,” writes Marketing Land founding editor Danny Sullivan in his story last week on Colbert’s feud with Google.
You can watch the full segment from The Colbert Report here:
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