Google smiles over granny’s viral ‘polite’ search
Good manners and right conduct in Googling.
A Google search of an 86-year-old British grandma from Great Manchester, United Kingdom, has brightened up mornings of social media users, even Google itself can’t help but grin at her ‘polite’ search.
The felicitous story sprung when grandma May Ashworth’s Google search inquiry “Please translate these roman numerals mcmxviii thank you” was peeped by her grandson Ben Eckersley. Ashworth apparently forgot to close her tabs and her grandson decided to open the laptop lid and check something online. Upon glancing at his granny’s waggish yet humble search, he captured and shared it on his Twitter account.
Article continues after this advertisementOmg opened my Nan’s laptop and when she’s googled something she’s put ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. I can’t 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/hiy2tecBjU
— Ben John (@Push10Ben) June 9, 2016
The simple google request became an amusing Twitter frenzy for many. It has been retweeted 16,175 times and liked 24,090 times. In a report by CBC News, Ashworth was searching for the year when a nursery rhyme book was published, and since she did not know how to decode roman numerals, she turned to Google to answer her query.
When BBC asked Eckersley why his grandma, which he calls ‘Nan’, inputs the words “Please” and “Thank you” in her search words, he gladly replied, “It seemed she thinks that there is someone — a physical person — at Google’s headquarters who looks after the searches,” he told the media outlet. “She thought that by being polite and using her manners, the search would be quicker.”
Finally managed to get my famous Nan to take a picture with me! pic.twitter.com/DKgEZf5SiU
— Ben John (@Push10Ben) June 15, 2016
In a flabergasting unfolding of the saga, Google and Google UK replied to her in a courteous and ‘British’ manner:
Article continues after this advertisementDearest Ben’s Nan.
Hope you’re well.
In a world of billions of Searches, yours made us smile.
Oh, and it’s 1998.
Thank YOU@Push10Ben— Google UK (@GoogleUK) June 15, 2016
Dear Grandma,
No thanks necessary. 😊
Sincerely,
Googlehttps://t.co/vedrVek8nb— Google (@google) June 15, 2016
Gianna Francesca Catolico
