Search Engines Use Homepages to Show Solidarity With Charlie Hebdo
The French homepages for Google and Bing both display kind words for the satirical magazine, which was victim to France's most brutal act of terrorism since 1961.
Search engines are showing support for Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine whose Paris office fell victim to a terrorist shooting spree Wednesday.
The two gunmen killed 12 people, in addition to wounding 11 others.
Beneath the search bar on Google France’s homepage is a small black square with, “Je suis Charlie” – I am Charlie – written inside.
The main image on Bing’s French homepage is a collection of yellow candles lit against a black background. Along the bottom of the page, it says, “Une journée de deuil national” and “Une vague mondiale d’emotion,” which translate to, “A national day of mourning” and “A global wave of emotion.”
Yahoo doesn’t have anything similar, though Charlie Hebdo still dominates the search engine’s homepage. The shooting is among Yahoo’s top news stories in most countries.
According to Google Trends, Charlie Hebdo was the top item yesterday, having been searched more than 1 million times. Similarly, three of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter pertain to the tragedy.