Google il Papa! (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog)

Google hasn’t yet started returning meaningful results for “Benedict XVI” in its main search results, though its news service was doing fine right from the start.

At 1:45 EST, I googled the new pope’s name, and found plenty of speculation that the next pope after John Paul II would choose that name. Creative works, including a comic book, have used characters with the name Pope Benedict XVI.

At 5:45, the search results were unchanged…

But the difference in GoogleAd options is marked.

Regarding Wikipedia: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was well-known before he was named pope, so much of the Wikipedians’ task was repackaging the material already assembled for Ratzinger, but it’s still amazing to see how detailed the Wikipedia article is, just a few hours after the news was announced. (See Wikipedia: Pope Benedict XVI.)