Glitch Mismatches Photos, News on Google

Engineers at Google Inc. are working to resolve a problem on the company's Google News site that has resulted in some photos and news stories being mismatched.

Searches conducted on Google News on Friday occasionally returned photos from Reuters Group PLC that didn't match the stories they were listed next to, such as a shot of bunches of vegetables that appeared alongside a story about a Japanese merger firm.

Another story listed on Google News' top business stories had a Reuters photo of a guitarist next to a Wall Street Journal story about Sprint Nextel considering changes to a wireless Internet service plan.

Google's news pages are automated and use computer coding, or algorithms, to select and display stories. Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said its algorithms appeared to be mismatching some material, but the problem appeared to be mainly with photos from Reuters.

Stricker said Google's engineers are working to solve the glitch and that it wasn't quite clear why the problem appears to be associated with Reuters material.

Newsweek magazine posted a story online late Thursday pointing out that last week Google News displayed photos of two monkeys next to stories about the expected departure of Dick Parsons as chief executive of Time Warner Inc.

Parsons is one of the most prominent black executives in the country, and Newsweek pointed out that 'few images of racism' are as offensive to blacks as monkeys.

Stricker called the mismatches "a really unfortunate mistake, and we're working very hard to fix it".

A Time Warner spokesman declined to comment.