I shouldn’t be surprised to find that there’s a forum to discuss Google and its competitors, and today discovered Search Engine Roundtable. One of its members here discusses the following Google quirk, initially reported in a Google forum:

I just typed in “slavery and fatherhood” in Google, looking for a book of that name. On the page it says, “did you mean slavery and motherhood?” When I put in “slavery and motherhood” it doesn’t ask “did you mean slavery and fatherhood.”. Why is that?

It’s true. I tried it myself:

The fellow who posted this is (correctly) debunking the idea that there’s some lefty anti-male bias afoot at Google. Which is a silly idea to begin with; Google’s algorithms make such suggestions based largely on the frequency of other people’s searches, and on the volume of links. (I got 685,000 results for the “…and motherhood” version, 194,000 for “…and fatherhood.”) But I like this notion that  shadowy Googlians could be silently proffering politically correct search results. Say you’re searching for the Washington Times: Google could gently suggest “Did you mean New York Times?” Or for the best price on a Mrs. Potato Head: “Did you mean Ms. Potato Head?” Glenn Beck enthusiasts could be coaxed into buying Odelay.  Mike Huckabee fans, may we interest you in a David O. Russell film?

As for people looking up Oral Roberts University. “Did you mean…” Well, sure, now that you mention it–thanks for offering!