Daily Dot Newsletter: 'Banana slurp' bamboozles Google (2025)

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Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here.Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr.

Here’s thelatest trending internet culture storiestoday: How wetricked Google’s search with nonsense, how someright-wingers are terrifiedDEI will dictate the choosing of the next pope, why people are infull-on scavenger hunt mode for a lobster purse, and how scientists havediscovered a new color.

After that, our Senior Politics and Technology EditorDavidhas a “Deplatformed” column for you.

See you tomorrow!

— A.W.

⚡ Today in Internet Culture

😵‍💫 GOOGLE BAMBOOZLE
‘Banana slurp’ and ‘Cyclops vibing’: We fed Google Search’s AI nonsense phrases and it pretended to know them

After noticing that Google’s AI Overviewwould give a summary to most queried searches, westarted experimenting by prompting it with nonsense phrasesfollowed by “meaning.”

➤READ MORE

⛪ VIRAL POLITICS
‘DEI Satan’: Conservative Catholics are already pledging to not follow any non-white pope

With the College of Cardinals soon moving to select a new Pope in the wake of Pope Francis’ passing,some right-wingers on social media are terrifiedthatDEI will dictate the secret ballot.

➤READ MORE

🦞 TRENDS
‘Will sell a kidney’: Women are literally begging chain stores for this viral beaded lobster purse

Shoppersare in full-on scavenger hunt modefor a specific,TikTok-viral white beaded purse covered in little red lobsters.

➤READ MORE

🟢 THE MORE YOU KNOW
Scientists say they discovered a new color called ‘olo’, and apparently it’s mind-blowing

Scientists recently announced they havediscovered a new, never-before-seen color called olo—but most of usstill won’t be seeing it anytime soon.

➤READ MORE

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ByDavid Covucci
Politics & Technology Editor

The cop who didn’t shoot Trump

Deplatformedis a weekly column that looks into thenether reaches of the internet—outside the big few that everyone already covers—to tell you thepolitical discourse online.It runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this columna day beforewe publish it,subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.

🕸️ Crawling the Web

Here is what else is happening across the ‘net.

👀 In a viral video, aCracker Barrelserverfound something unusualin thebiscuit batter. Thenit gets baked into the meal.

☎️Prank delivery orderscan be anuisancenot just for therecipient, but for thebusiness involved.

🌯 If you’re eating aTrader Joe’s bean, rice, and cheese burrito, one customersays you should stop now.

👩 In ahealthy relationship, it’s easy to becomecomfortable with a partnerwho fully accepts you as you are,for better or worse.

⚰️ From theDaily Dot archive:Is your kidattending funeralson Roblox?

📝 Question of the Day

Everyone’s got opinions, andwe want to know yours. Justclick a button belowto answer the question, and tomorrowwe will let you knowhow fellow web crawlers like you answered.

DO YOU TRUST GOOGLE’S AI SEARCH SUMMARIES?

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