What Should Search Engines Do With Silly Viral Images?

Danny Sullivan points out that both Google and Windows Live Search feature this photo of a raccoon attempting to subvert the laws of nature with a li’l dog:

So, what are search engines supposed to do? It’s a popular image for obvious reasons (it’s stupid), with probably a ton of places embedding it , so it’s only natural it would wind up making the image thumbnails that appear above search results, and there are a million examples of searches like this one. There really isn’t much to do since it is deserving based on the ranking algorithm, and it isn’t offensive, just silly. The SafeSearch filter would probably catch anything really bad, while the rest of us can enjoy our favorite woodland creature/house pet erotica.

Original post by Nathan Weinberg