A number of people noticed a swastika (卐) on the hot trends list of Google Trends this morning.
Google took the site down with a message that it was undergoing network maintenance and should be available again in a few hours. Then, minutes later, the site was back up, with the swastika still listed as the thirteenth hottest search term.
Google Trends says the query peaked at about 6 am Pacific. The query is actually a Chinese character, but the trends list that it shows up for is U.S. searches. It looks like a successful spamming attempt, but given the number of queries Google handles it looks to be pretty sophisticated - at one point it was the number one query. We’ve pinged Google for a comment.
Update: It’s now been removed or has fallen off the hot trends list.
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probably 4chan
It should be a spam attempt since now says:
“Your terms - 卐 - do not have enough search volume to show graphs.”
How did you get that sign to be printed…. would gladly appreciate how you did it…
Swastika is familiar symbol and term for Indians
bear in mind swatiskas are originaly not nazi symbols but hindu
Awww…its a Hopi peace symbol.
Swastika is a holy symbol in India. Its used in every religious rituals like cross in US
Sure it was! lol
all of u suck hitler used it in the war he killed heaps of people n some of u think he used it as a peace sign
Actually the Swastika is not an evil symbol & it’s not necessarily Chinese (though I did not know it was an actual Chinese character). I do welcome people’s inquiry into the symbol b/c it’s a symbol that’s been maligned by Nazism.
It’s origin is Vedic (ancient India) & it’s a shame that the Nazis used it to symbolize their hate. Ironically, the Swastika means exactly the oppposite — DIRECT OPPOSITE — of what the Nazis made to be. It’s a symbol of to wish good luck, good health, well being to ALL…and it’s a WELCOME sign.
This is why you’ll find this symbol on the gates of homes in India. Come on in, it’s saying. You’re welcome here. That is exactly OPPOSITE to what the Nazis were saying which was “Go away. We don’t want you. You’re not welcome here.”
I’m Indian-American so I see the symbol everywhere. In India, you’ll find it not just on homes but on temples, on gods, on cars, in taxis, on clothing. It’s EVERYWHERE.
Here in the States & Canada, it’s on our temples & clothing & it’s been targeted by those who associate it with Nazism. I have Jewish friends who know the symbol in our home is the exact opposite to their association with it. Most took time to not jump when seeing it. Some never got over it.
I can understand that association, the cringing, the angry response — but I welcome the interest in the symbol as a chance to reclaim it.
If someone did this with the Cross, should Christians give it up?
Btw, the swastika isn’t just Hindu or Asian (though it’s prominent there) symbol. It’s been found in many, MANY cultures both eastern and western.
This again goes against what the Nazis wanted. It’s an inclusive symbol — not an exclusive one.
If this is really happening, I’m glad people are willing to check it out.
Apologies. Typo:
It’s a symbol TO wish good luck, good health, well being to ALL…and it’s a WELCOME sign.
Testing is HTML is allowed….
Test….
of….And one more note.
There’s the mistaken idea that the “good” swastika is “square” or pointed in a different direction than the “evil” Nazi one.
That’s just not true.
The swastika has almost 100s of variations & include the tilted one that’s similar to the one found on the Nazi flag.
That’s the ONLY thing they got right about the symbol. The rest of it, like all their other ideas, were twisted & just plain wrong.
Hitler used it to reflect the “SIGNAGE” of the Aryans. The superior Race, knowingly he borrowed the Icon from INDIA, not the Hindus. Hindus are the people of India and not a definition of a religion. Their way of life is and has always been guided by past experiences and a slight mix of mysticism. Dating back some 5000 years ago, these symbols are very misunderstood by the reflected nature of the current (last 100 years or so) brand owned generation. Using acronyms appropriately or inappropriately reflect the individuals’ reflection on the said subject.
What utter nonsense. How hard is it for you to read up the article on wikipedia on swastikas before you jump your PC wagon? It’s an ancient South Asian symbol, and you’ll find it strewn all over India and East Asia. Just because the KKK burned men on stakes - do you get all worked up about someone googling for the crucifix.
What amazes me is the sheer level of ignorance even when people have access to the internet. And Google will in accordance with the hypersensitive remove all references. Ugh.
WTF cares?
@12….Well said. Seriously, spam? How large of a spam attack could it be for it muck up Google Trends? And isn’t that a question worth investigating?
Also, if that many people are looking into something, isn’t,um, worth looking into??
Google should’ve checked a little more carefully.
@13….Obviously alot of people care.
I was quite shocked to see several swastikas on the wall in our Pune, India office.
It turns out that for Hindi the symbol has much different meaning…
The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been found worldwide, but it is especially common in India. Its name comes the Sanskrit word svasti (sv = well; asti = is), meaning good fortune, luck and well-being.
The swastika is most commonly used as a charm to bring good fortune (in which case the arms are bent clockwise), but it has a variety of religious meanings as well.
The right-hand swastika is one of the 108 symbols of the god Vishnu as well as a symbol of the sun and of the sun god Surya. The symbol imitates in the rotation of its arms the course taken daily by the sun, which appears in the Northern Hemisphere to pass from east, then south, to west. (It is also a symbol of the sun among Native Americans.)
The left-hand swastika (called a sauvastika) usually represents the terrifying goddess Kali, night and magic. However, this form of the swastika is not “evil” and it is the form most commonly used in Buddhism.
The auspicious symbol of the swastika is very commonly used in Hindu art, architecture and decoration. It can be seen on temples, houses, doorways, clothing, cars, and even cakes. It is usually a major part of the decoration for festivals and special ceremonies like weddings.
The Nazis adopted the swastika because it was understood as an Aryan symbol indicating racial purity and superiority. (The Nazis propogated a historical theory in which the early Aryans of India were white invaders.) There may also be a connection with the swastika’s magical connections, for Hitler and other Nazi leaders were keenly interested in the occult.
Sources
1. John Bowker, ed., Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions (2000).
2. “swastika.” Encyclopædia Britannica (2007). Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
3. Swastika - Wikipedia (January 2007)
I was driving out to the airport in Taipei this afternoon and there’s a massive Buddhist temple on the side of the motorway. Atop the temple there’s a huge statue of a waving Buddha, and …. a huge swastika displayed on the temple for all to see. Heaven forbid if someone built that temple in the States, it’d be pulled down in seconds on the grounds of political correctness.
Nazi Symbol is not the same as Swastika. It’s actually a complete mirror image of swastika.
i think nazis are probably not searching for “swastika” using the symbol. aren’t they more interested in “Rush Limbaugh reups for 60 million?”
So the confusion about the origin of the symbol has been dealt with. Sure Mike is the top blogger in US but even he is prone to mistakes. Never mind. Expect some more comments here when India wakes up in about 8 hours
@16, Jason, nice write up. Thanks.
Um, err, you guys hiring? I’ve always wanted to work a few years in India & Asia.
And Australia. And Europe. And South America. And…..
the swastika is still a nice symbol.
@Tobsen - that’s like saying the Titanic is still a nice boat.
Social and cultural meanings for symbols change, and they mean different things to different people in different places. And in the west, today, that symbol is a Nazi symbol. It sucks - but that is they way it is.
Yeah, I love the attacks from the people talking about peace and love.
It’s widely known, even here in the U.S., that the nazis didn’t invent the symbol. But it has certainly become synonymous with intolerance and hatred in Europe and the U.S. And the fact that a random UTF-8 character that is synonymous with hatred is appearing as a top search query on Google, in the U.S., says something is up.
Its an Indian symbol,
The Nazi use involves a 90 degree angle, as far as I know, it really doesn’t need to merit any discussion, since Google found the symbol objectionable, in the location and manner it was used, and probably stopped it.
The symbol is also very common in many native american cultural groups (predating the nazi use by hundreds and hundreds of years) - its called the running wheel.
its an attack by jesse jackson’s followers.
Boy, continuing to insist that a particular symbol stands for something specific to the US and hence is evil on a global stage such as the Internet and in the face of global evidence to the contrary is exactly the kind of insular attitude that got us in trouble in the first place.
Hopefully Google has a better angle on diversity.
I did it. Damn Canadians, I hate them all soooo much. 53% tax on gas !
I remember an episode of Night Stalker where an Indian restaurant opened up in a Jewish area with a bunch of these symbols on the building. Obviously, the restaurant wasn’t making much money, but they did explain that it was a religious symbol and helped to keep a blood thirsty monster away.
do you guys seriously think that the religious and cultural history of the symbol is some secret knowledge that none of us knew before you came on here to grace us with your comments? The meaning of the symbol in the western world changed with WWII. There’s a reason it randomly appeared on google trends today, and there’s a reason google pulled it down. get over yourselves.
jonas > yes it was 4chan, like I said here: http://blogoscoped.com/forum/135641.html#id135645
Um, guys? Did you bother to actually LOOK at the graphic posted along with the story?
5% Grand Rapids MICHIGAN.
Yes, we all get that it’s a symbol used frequently in India and in other cultures including Native American ones. But unlikely that 2 hours ago in MICHIGAN there were suddenly a bunch of folks from India who forgot what the swastika meant and had to look it up on Google.
Mike is dead on - because when you factor in the other elements of the equation, it has to be a deliberate spam attempt to put it in Google rankings - otherwise it would still be there if it were just ‘common usage’ - but seriously… do you think most of the Indian population in Michigan got up this morning and thought “hey - I wonder what swastika means - I should google that.”
*eye roll*
31/Michael,
About your comments on “getting over yourselves,” We are talking about a Global economy here, right? Google is a US company but is doing business in all the countries, right? If a symbol shows up that is holy in India+China+Japan and many other countries where Google does business and is not used in context of hate as the westerner’s know it, then why take it down? If this was an exclusive to USA, I can understand. I think it is time for the US and Europeans to get over it.
And about you knowing about this symbol before WW II. Nobody had any clue about it before because as we know India and China were some backward countries no one cared about (until NOW). I also remember an incident that caused an uproar during Nagano Winter Olympics in Japan when Dan Rather was reporting in front of a Buddhist temple that has a swastik on it. Ignorance is not the monopoly of the poor!
Sean is autistic, please excuse him. He was born in the 80’s (at best) and doesn’t know any better.
>do you guys seriously think that the religious and cultural history
>of the symbol is some secret knowledge that none of us knew
>before you came on here to grace us with your comments?
Actually most people do NOT know it. At all. Not one clue. “Widely known” — that’s bs. When have we Americans been accused of being great historians?
And that’s a pretty good reason to post a short but detailed response about the swastika, don’t you think?
To, you know, expose people to different ideas?
I know. I know. There I go using the Internets to “network” and “exchange information” again.
>The meaning of the symbol in the western world changed with WWII.
So we should continue to let some psychotic mass-murderer dictate our ideas, right?
So 9/11 & Bin Laden really should define Islam, correct?
>get over yourselves.
Yeah. Those people. So touchy about their “religion” and “culture”. They really should get over it.
Mike, I do know that controversy & even being a jerk gets more comments. Your original post was legit & newsworthy - if not very informative. You’re two comments makes you look like a pompous jerk.
Maybe that’s your aim or maybe not but YOU need to get over YOURself.
@34, Sean, well said. However, given the horrors Nazism brought to Europe, “getting over it” can sound harsh.
I think “it’s time for the US & Europe to recover” is probably more sympathetic — and given what they went through, more true.
Well said otherwise.
What does the history of the symbol has to do with this case, in which a group of non-Indian, non-Chinese people deliberately Googled it to get it up the ranks? Especially considering that the group responsible for this, 4chan, is known for extreme racist and antisemitic spam campaigns (although in their defense — they only do it to offend, not because they actually hate).
But I guess logic is incompatible with multiculturalism, so we have to assume that despite all odds, a group of American Hindus suddenly got the urge to google their holy unicode character on the same day as it was posted on 4chan.
Swastika is completely and utterly retarded.
He is simply self-important.
So let him “shine”. He simply doesn’t know any better. He will save and inform us whether we like it or not. Though, to be honest, he doesn’t know what we “know”. He just assumes we come from community college like he does.
All ~30+ of my close friends are aware of the Hindu swasitka, dumb ass.
Most of the Americans I have met have no idea about the Hindu swastika, dumb ass.
OH NOES!
THE GOOGLES ARE THE NAZIS!!!
ARRINGTON SAYZ SO!!!
DROP IT AND GO RUNNING TO M$ NOW!!!
@ Mike (31): “The meaning of the symbol in the western world changed with WWII. ”
Given all the talk about Globalization etc… isnt it time to re-assess, perhaps “re-discover” and possibly reassert the original meaning and significance of the symbol?
Just a thought
4chan does not compute for “Swastika”, just the ability to show “how smart” and culturally sensitive. R-E-T-A-R-T-D-E-D, leave him alone (doesn’t know any better).
@GeekMommy, actually I did see that.
My first reaction was that it was a spamming attempt by someone or a group sympathetic to the Swastika — I’ve seen emails before stating that the swastika needed to be “defended”, etc…
So, yeah, it could’ve been spam, but it could’ve been done to raise the issue of the Swastika’s meaning — and not just some hate crime.
Who knows but we’re here now & like any organic discussion, you can take it where you want it.
And, if you continue rolling your eyes over that graphic, you’ll also see the term “satyagraha” — which is definitely not Nazi & should beg for further investigation.
@Shatnenau
Sure, Mike will just change the opinion of every uneducated and unthoughtful person in the western world, and, “reassert the original meaning and significance of the symbol”. You are also part of the Tard-wagon? If consumer perception were easily manipulated, advertising spend would be lots smaller than $200B+. Moron.
Talk about hypersensitvity! Com’on TC, dont you have something better to talk about.
Mike, I agree with you 100%. It is unfortunate but the Nazis change the understanding of many things for the worse.
@Frank. Hey guy, please keep talking. You really do yourself (& whomever you side with) proud.
Seriously. Kep taking s.o +elkqently.
@Ilya, 4chan huh? Tracking it, it seems that it went organic shortly after. But that it wasn’t hate (or a desire to enlighten) that pushed the symbol. Just curiousity about the symbol itself.
Interesting. Still worth a chance to “defend” the symbol & question Google’s reaction to it.
The funniest part about this is the text right under the symbol that says “Hotness: Spicy.”
For the ignorant bums at Techcrunch their history starts and ends at the myopic borders of their own limited mental geographies.
Otherwise why else, ostrich like, they would choose to turn a blind eye to histories of countries that stretch back ages, when America was but one deep hole beyond the civilisational horizon.
Grow up, folks, Swastika has a history that has got nothing to do with the Nazis.
Given how often the top 10 list in Google Trends changes (at least hourly) how can the presence of any term be meaningful enough to ascribe intent “Something is up”? Really Michael? What do you make of the fact that the number one term right now is “zymurgist”?