Tasteless Ebay Ads on Google: Orphans for Sale - and Much More!

An entry at J-Walk Blog notes that a search for "tsunami orphans" on the UK Google (google.co.uk) returns an ad from Ebay.co.uk offering "Orphans for Sale!" (original credit goes to Ben's Thought Crimes). I found an even more revolting ad by simply entering "orphans" on the UK site. This time the ad comes from the American Ebay.com, and offers "new and used orphans." Here is an untouched screenshot:

A little lower in the list of ads is yet another one from Ebay.com for:

Orphans
Great deals on new and used items.
Search for orphans now! -aff
www.eBay.com

Ebay is paying Google to provide orphan-related ads, and Google is generating them. Regardless of who is most to blame, the result is tasteless. I hope both companies will take action swiftly.

Perhaps the UK Google folks have filed a patent for a tasteless add generator. They certainly don't limit themselves to tsunami orphans or even orphans in general. Many other victims are being sold. Here are some additional untouched images from ads generated by search strings at Google.co.uk:

For a while, I thought this was just a UK fluke since the more tasteful US-based Google.com was not up to selling off the homeless, orphans, and other victims, in spite of Ebay's willingness to pay for such ads. But a couple more searches revealed the sordid underbelly of our own beloved American Google. Here are actual portions of screenshots, obtained Jan. 9, 2004, with one-word searches at Google.com:

Interestingly, there seems to be a bigger market for buying Republicans than for Democrats, based on the number and prominence of the respective ads. But the market for politicians in general seems huge - no surprise. But I was surprised to see that Presidents weren't for sale, either new or used. Does that mean that they have already been bought? Or that they can't be bought? You decide.

I think my favorite group of ads came from the term "ripoffs":

Thanks again to Walter Reade for the heads-up about the J-Walk Blog entry.

Update: Over on Mormanity, you can see that Ebay also has a religious side, selling souls, Mormon faith, and even Mormon women.

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