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Taking a joke
I detest April Fools Day.
Earlier this month, on April 2nd, I was doom-scrolling Google Discover and saw an article pop up from the Johns Hopkins Newsletter (a legit campus publication) saying that my alma mater was joining the Ivy League.
Cool, I thought. I get to say that I went to an Ivy League school! I read the article and dug a bit deeper.
Of course, it turned out that the story was an April Fools prank. Johns Hopkins is not in the Ivy League, and probably never will be.
That’s according to reality. But not according to Google.
Again, the story showed up in my Discover feed, which means Google felt it was real enough to push out to me. But if you search “Johns Hopkins Ivy League” or even just “Johns Hopkins News,” the story appears prominently at the top of Google.
It’s also repeated in various aggregated stories picked up by other outlets, and in a Reddit post that ranks #3 on the page.
Why?
