http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/business/media/stephen-colbert-has-a-mock-feud-with-google-over-search-results.html 2014-10-20 03:13:22 Stephen Colbert Has a Mock Feud With Google Over Search Results Stephen Colbert chided the search engine for getting his height wrong, a situation that highlighted challenges about the accuracy and sources of its information. === In On Wednesday night’s edition of “The Colbert Report,” Mr. Colbert directed his “Some viewers might say, what’s the big deal?” Mr. Colbert said. “I’m 5-11. That’s me, Brad Pitt and Russell Crowe. These are my peers.” Another peer, he noted less excitedly, was Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, who is also listed at 5-11. He demanded that Mr. Page offer “a retraction, an investigation, an apology and a substantial cash settlement.” Over the weekend, Google changed its answer — slightly. Mr. Colbert’s height was changed to 5 feet 10.5 inches. It also noted that the height converted to “1.79m-ish” in the metric system. Google also inserted comparisons: Conan O’Brien was listed at 6-foot-4, and Mr. Colbert’s lead-in on Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, was described simply as “shorter.” Some might wonder who is asking Google about Stephen Colbert’s height, as opposed to LeBron James’s. Other than Mr. Colbert, that is, who said Wednesday night that he does a Google search on himself each day at 3 p.m. sharp. Google has lately been trying to increase the direct answers it provides users — presumably in the hope of keeping people on the site longer, so they can see more ads. That appears to be a change in mission from organizing links and makes Google act more like a publisher of information. As Danny Sullivan Even after a little sleuthing, Mr. Sullivan could not determine where Google got its 5-foot-10 answer for Mr. Colbert’s height. And Siri, the iPhone service that answers questions, still lists Mr. Colbert at 5-10.