Google thanks grandmother for her polite search

The BBC reports that Google has thanked a British grandmother who conducted the politest ever search after thinking that the answers were provided by a person.

According to the reports, Google UK tweeted a thanks message to 86-year-old May Ashworth saying, “In a world of billions of searches, yours made us smile.”

Google’s main Twitter account too responded with “Dear Grandma, no thanks necessary.”

Wondering what the ‘thanks’ is all about? The British grandmother has charmed the internet with her search reading: “Please translate these roman numerals mcmxcviii thank you.”

The search was discovered by Ashworth’s 25-year-old grandson Ben Eckersley who was visiting her.

While looking through her computer, Ben stumbled upon what she had typed into Google. Ben then tweeted a photo of his grandmother’s polite search on Google which went viral.

[Her grandson Ben said] I asked my nan why she used ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and it seemed she thinks that there is someone – a physical person – at Google’s headquarters who looks after the searches. She thought that by being polite and using her manners, the search would be quicker.

After Ben John tweeted the photo, Google replied.

Dearest Ben’s Nan, Hope you’re well. In a world of billions of searches, yours made us smile. Oh, and it’s 1998. Thank YOU.

According to the report, Ben’s grandmother loves watching TV and “it seems she has an interest in knowing when programmes were made.” TV shows still reportedly use Roman numerals on their credits to show the year of the programme.

Ben told BBC that she saw a TV show but couldn’t make out the from the credits, so she put the numerals into Google. “It made me chuckle so I thought I’d take a photo and put it on Twitter for my friends to see. I didn’t expect so many other people to see it,” says BBC report quoting Ben. So as they taught us in school, the words ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ are magical.