• Search Engine Land, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 1:26 PM

Engaged in a little damage control, Google is buying ads to explain why an offensive image of First Lady Michelle Obama has returned to its index, and is ranking highly in searches for her name in Google Image Search. Google had previously removed the Michelle Obama image on the grounds that the site hosting the image violated Google's guidelines by serving malware to visitors. The same image, however, remained available on other sites that hadn't run afoul of the rules.

Google's ad leads searchers to a site featuring an apology to users who've "had an upsetting experience using Google," and explains the company's policy on offensive content: "Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."

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