GRANDMA WENT VIRAL FOR USING ‘PLEASE’ IN A GOOGLE SEARCH
When 86-year-old May Ashworth needed to decode some Roman numerals from a television broadcast, she typed her request into Google using full manners, complete with a “please” and a “thank you.” Her grandson Ben found the search sitting on her laptop screen, and after he posted a photo of her polite inquiry online, the wholesome moment captured the internet’s heart.
The charming discovery happened completely by accident on June 9, 2016. Ben and his boyfriend did not have a clothes dryer at their home near Manchester, England. To get their weekly washing done, Ben headed over to his grandmother’s house in Wigan.
“I live with my boyfriend and we don’t have a dryer at our house, so I usually go over to my nan’s to do our washing,” he told the BBC, according to Mashable.
While he was waiting, Ben decided to open up his grandmother’s laptop to pass the time on the internet. That was when he saw her most recent Google search sitting open on the screen.
She had typed a very specific, polite request into the search bar: “Please translate these roman numerals mcmxcviii thank you.”
According to BBC, Ashworth had been watching a television show and wanted to know what year the program was produced. She could not figure out the date from the Roman numerals flashing in the credits, so she turned to the search engine for help.
Ashworth does not use her laptop very often. When Ben asked his grandmother why she used such formal manners for a simple web search, she revealed how she thought the technology worked.
She told him that she thought a physical person sat at Google’s headquarters in charge of processing the searches. She figured that being polite and minding her manners would make the employee process her request a little bit faster.
“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,” he told the outlet. “She thought that by being polite and using her manners, the search would be quicker.”
A Billion Searches
Amused by the wholesome discovery, Ben snapped a picture of the screen and posted it to Twitter on June 9, 2016. He figured his friends would get a laugh out of it and had no idea the post would go massively viral.
“It made me chuckle so I thought I’d take a photo and put it on Twitter for my friends to see,” he told the BBC. “I didn’t expect so many other people to see it!”
People across the world instantly fell in love with the polite British grandmother. The photo racked up thousands of likes and shares as strangers chimed in to praise her manners.
According to CNN, commenters joked that her manners would guarantee her safety in the future. One user joked, “She’ll be spared during the machine uprising, though,” while another added, “Manners go a long way young man.”
By June 15, 2016, the story had reached the people who actually do work at Google. The company’s official accounts decided to send their own polite replies back to Ashworth.
Google UK sent a message directly to Ben’s account, specifically answering his grandmother’s question and translating the numerals into the year 1998. They noted that her search stood out from the crowd.
“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,” the Google UK account wrote.
Google’s main account also joined in on the fun to reassure her about the search process. They posted their own message to the family on Twitter.
The main account wrote, “Dear Grandma, No thanks necessary. 😊 Sincerely, Google.”
Ben later shared a photo of himself and his newly famous grandmother smiling together on June 16, 2016. The update provided a heartwarming conclusion to one of the internet’s kindest exchanges.
