Redirecting Googlers To Sites They're Not Searching For Can Have Benefits — And A Dark Side

Published July 31, 2019 at 11:20 AM CDT

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Patrick Berlinquette talks about his New York Times' Op Ed titled "I Used Google Ads for Social Engineering. It Worked." (Alastair Pike/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2016, Google created “The Redirect Method,” a web programming technique created to redirect searchers looking for extremist content to opposite content — about diffusing radical ideologies.

When that campaign was over, Google released its blueprint for redirecting so that other programmers could use it. Among those was certified Google partner Patrick Berlinquette (@WarmSpeakers) who used it to successfully direct suicidal Googlers to a help hotline. He wrote about the experience in a recent New York Times opinion piece.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks to Berlinquette about his use of the redirect, and about the issues he says redirecting presents.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.