World White Web wants to diversify Google’s search results

Searching up the word “hand” on Google gives you numerous results, but all of them have something in common: they’re white. In order to get yourself some more colorful images, you’ll need to be more specific with your search request, and this is something that the World White Web campaign sees as a problem. How does the campaign intend to fix the problem, you ask? Well, by getting volunteers to boost search results of course. 

When you search on Google for the term “hand” or “leg,” the results you get back rarely feature a person of color. It was this particular search result that led Swedish design student Johanna Burai to launch the World White Web campaign. “I was looking for an image of a black hand, and I expected to find one simply by searching for ‘hand’.” A Google image search for the term “hand” gives you about 800 hits, but they are all white. You need to perform a more detailed search if you want to find non-white hands. The World White Web project aims to raise promote equality in search results and raise awareness of ‘whiteness’ on the Web and any campaigns to stop it. The site features six images of non-white hands that you are encouraged to download and share on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest in order to boost their rankings on Google. It also includes links to informative pieces on related topics like white privilege and institutional racism.