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Tech

Go Ahead, Ask Google 'What Happened to the Dinosaurs'

Is this a case of SEO gone wrong?
Rachel Pick
New York, US

Sorry Google, dinosaurs are not an indoctrination tool used by "evolutionists."

But right now, that's what you're told if you search "what happened to the dinosaurs." This claim comes via Google's highlighted, pullout result—which appears prominently in a box at the top of the results page—sourced from answersingenesis.com, a Christian website that attempts to use Genesis to debunk established science.

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The site also claims that dinosaurs were created by God on the sixth day, along with Adam and Eve, so they lived at the same time as humans. Their demise began with the great flood, and was completed when they couldn't handle the new post-flood environment.

"Dinosaurs are used more than anything else to indoctrinate children and adults in the idea of millions of years of earth history," the excerpt says.

Okay. Sure.

Apparently this has been the top result for at least a few days, but no one is sure why. It could be some SEO mastery on the part of the website, or a rumored modification to Google's algorithm. Either way, you can use the "Feedback" link under the result to voice your concern.

"That's [an] example of Google making direct answers from web content which can sometimes be embarrassingly wrong," said Danny Sullivan, founding editor of the industry blog Search Engine Land, in an email to Motherboard.

Google declined to comment.