Google is fixing an issue with its Google Maps search function, which currently leads people to The White House if they search for variations of the n-word with the word house.
Multiple media outlets, including the Washington Post and the Huffington Post, reported the issue Tuesday afternoon after a Twitter user first posted a screen shot of the problem.
“Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused,” a Google spokeswoman said in an email statement.
The reason for the problem is unclear, but one search expert thinks it’s likely due to how Google links certain phrases and terms to locations on the map.
“What we think is the cause, is that Google is seeing how people are talking about places on blogs, and Google’s making those associations,” Danny Sullivan, the notable founding editor of Search Engine Land, told CNNMoney. Sullivan says this isn’t a problem where someone overtly made this search query redirect to The White House.
“People might be saying [these things] generally, and it doesn’t even need to be a lot references,” he added. “It’s kind of crowdsoucing terms gone bad.”
This is the second major Google Maps issue in the past two months.
In April, someone discovered an illustration of an Android robot peeing on an Apple logo in a rural area of Pakistan. Google suspended its public Map Maker tool and started to review every submission manually after the incident.
Google says it is working to fix The White House Google Maps issue “quickly.”