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As if Google's naming policy is a check against a list of words... More likely; Google has implemented an algorithm that uses machine learning and several other

As if Google's naming policy is a check against a list of words... More likely; Google has implemented an algorithm that uses machine learning and several other heuristics to try and determine the probability that the name is real or not. Still sound like incompetence? Does a name like "Elaine Yellow Horse" seem real or fake? You simply can't win all the time when you deal with billions of people. Google's customer support and appeal process leave a lot to be desired, but calling them incompetent and racist is just silly.

chris_wot 13y ago
If Google's customer support and appeal process leave a lot to be desired and they haven't changed it in several years, you just gave us an example of incompetence.
protomyth 13y ago
"Still sound like incompetence? Does a name like "Elaine Yellow Horse" seem real or fake?" The name seems pretty real to me. Could you please explain what about it would indicate it was fake? Yes, using fancy methods to get a wrong result is still wrong. Let's also remember we are talking about a company that indexes the web. Perhaps they could use that data to test.
- ampersandy 13y ago
  How many people do you know with adjectives in their name? If you met someone and they said their name was "Joey Red Puma", would you assume that's real or fake? You'd probably say something like "really? you're joking, right?" I would certainly be skeptical. For all we know that might be a real name too, but all we can do is make an educated guess about whether or not it is. My point is that determining if a name is real or not is pretty arbitrary so if your objective is to verify if a name is valid or not, you simply can't be 100% accurate. A wrong result is wrong, but making the best of what you have to try and get the right answer most of the time (while still being wrong sometimes) is in and of itself not wrong. Take any NP-hard problem, the best you can do is use heuristics to try and approximate a good solution, since the "right result" is simply impossible to compute.
  - protomyth 13y ago
    "How many people do you know with adjectives in their name? If you met someone and they said their name was "Joey Red Puma", would you assume that's real or fake? You'd probably say something like "really? you're joking, right?" I would certainly be skeptical." Nope, I grew up around people with adjectives in their name. It is very, very common among the plain tribes[1]. I tend to be suspicious of people named "Smith" or "Johnson" since it seems like a common dodge on forms. I am troubled that you think having an adjective in a family name should be cause to trouble someone. I realize European names have suffixes added in place of adjectives, but that should not blind people from other ways names are assembled. I am also particularly unhappy with an American company that has heuristics that flag a specific ethnic group in the USA. "the best you can do is use heuristics to try and approximate a good solution, since the "right result" is simply impossible to compute." Then don't friggin do it. Google is a SEARCH company and has indexed a huge amount of the web. Running names through their damn heuristics should have shown a problem. If you google "Yellow Horse" you see multiple examples of people with that family name on the first page of results. Google especially shouldn't try it since they don't have support needed to handle the exceptions without people going to the press. 1) not sure about south or east or 1st Nations
nimblegorilla 13y ago
I don't know how Google implemented their algorithm, but it is clearly some type of check against a list of words. There is literally no other way to decide that "Elaine Yellow Horse" is a fake name while "Pat Eve Smith" is a real name.

chris_wot 13y ago

If Google's customer support and appeal process leave a lot to be desired and they haven't changed it in several years, you just gave us an example of incompetence.

protomyth 13y ago

"Still sound like incompetence? Does a name like "Elaine Yellow Horse" seem real or fake?" The name seems pretty real to me. Could you please explain what about it would indicate it was fake? Yes, using fancy methods to get a wrong result is still wrong. Let's also remember we are talking about a company that indexes the web. Perhaps they could use that data to test.

ampersandy 13y ago
How many people do you know with adjectives in their name? If you met someone and they said their name was "Joey Red Puma", would you assume that's real or fake? You'd probably say something like "really? you're joking, right?" I would certainly be skeptical. For all we know that might be a real name too, but all we can do is make an educated guess about whether or not it is. My point is that determining if a name is real or not is pretty arbitrary so if your objective is to verify if a name is valid or not, you simply can't be 100% accurate. A wrong result is wrong, but making the best of what you have to try and get the right answer most of the time (while still being wrong sometimes) is in and of itself not wrong. Take any NP-hard problem, the best you can do is use heuristics to try and approximate a good solution, since the "right result" is simply impossible to compute.
- protomyth 13y ago
  "How many people do you know with adjectives in their name? If you met someone and they said their name was "Joey Red Puma", would you assume that's real or fake? You'd probably say something like "really? you're joking, right?" I would certainly be skeptical." Nope, I grew up around people with adjectives in their name. It is very, very common among the plain tribes[1]. I tend to be suspicious of people named "Smith" or "Johnson" since it seems like a common dodge on forms. I am troubled that you think having an adjective in a family name should be cause to trouble someone. I realize European names have suffixes added in place of adjectives, but that should not blind people from other ways names are assembled. I am also particularly unhappy with an American company that has heuristics that flag a specific ethnic group in the USA. "the best you can do is use heuristics to try and approximate a good solution, since the "right result" is simply impossible to compute." Then don't friggin do it. Google is a SEARCH company and has indexed a huge amount of the web. Running names through their damn heuristics should have shown a problem. If you google "Yellow Horse" you see multiple examples of people with that family name on the first page of results. Google especially shouldn't try it since they don't have support needed to handle the exceptions without people going to the press. 1) not sure about south or east or 1st Nations

nimblegorilla 13y ago

I don't know how Google implemented their algorithm, but it is clearly some type of check against a list of words. There is literally no other way to decide that "Elaine Yellow Horse" is a fake name while "Pat Eve Smith" is a real name.