People are disgusted with the top Google result for 'are black people smart'

Google has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks to improve its algorithm following the revelation that the extreme far-right website Stormfront was the top result when users searched for "did the Holocaust happen?".

The tech giant said it was "thinking deeply" about a change, according to a statement given to the BBC.

While that top result - which showed the article "Top 10 reasons why the holocaust didn't happen" - has reportedly been removed from users in the US, it remains in the UK.

A spokesperson for the company said:

This is a really challenging problem, and something we're thinking deeply about in terms of how we can do a better job.

Search is a reflection of the content that exists on the web.

The fact that hate sites may appear in search results in no way means that Google endorses these views.

It has since emerged that there are other extreme results on Google when searching for topics around race and gender.

One particular search that has caused serious concern is the top result for "are black people smart?".

For many users, the top result on Google was “Blacks Are the Least Intelligent Race of All” from an obscure Wordpress blog - hardly the most authoritative source of information.

Not only was it the top result, but for many people it showed up as in a "knowledge box" and its message appears to be unequivocally endorsed by Google:

While the tech giant warns in its smallprint that "featured snippets reflect the views or opinion of the site from which we extract the snippet, not that of Google", many think that's not good enough for a tool that is trusted by millions of people worldwide.

More: Google results claim that the Holocaust didn't happen, and company won't change it