Last night I used Big Google to look for information about Germans and I found it was thrilling to see how variable Google’s Autocomplete feature fills up in different languages if you ask: “Why are there so many Germans … ?”

As I understand, Google’s Autocomplete is using an algorithm that in particular take notes of former search inquiries and offers you the three to four mostly used completions of your sentence. If this is the case, you can see what prejudices seem to exist or are partly reflected in the Autocomplete. Try it yourself and do not write the whole question to the end, just stop after the three first letters of “Germans” in your language.

Here are results based on languages, I know:

English
Well, looks like the English-speaking people hold Germans in high regards. If you ask Google “Why are there so many ger” it will try to autocomplete with German composers, philosophers and scientists:

Spanish
Spanish people on the other hand, seem to feel overcrowded or colonized by the Germans. When you type “Porque hay tantos ale” into Google, you see that people tend to ask why there are so many Germans in Mallorca, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay.

German
And the Germans themselves bring up their best Nazi-attitude. If you type “Warum gibt es so viele deu” into Google, Autocomplete proposes you to turn the question around and ask why are there so many Turkish people and foreigners in Germany.

If you like, let me know or leave a comment what Google’s Autocomplete comes up with in your language.