After initially removing the link to a blog, Hot Girls, which shows the image along with undoctored photos of the first lady and President Barack Obama, Google did an about-face Monday and restored the image with a disclaimer.

"Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries," the disclaimer says. "We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."

News Draws Traffic

The Google message notes that ranking in its search results was based on "algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query," and had nothing to do with the "beliefs and preferences of Google employees and the general public."

"Accordingly, we do not remove a page from our search results simply because its content is unpopular or because we receive complaints concerning it," the disclaimer says. "We will, however, remove pages from our results if we believe the page (or its site) violates our webmaster guidelines, if we believe we are required to do so by law, or at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for the page."

Reports of the Google disclaimer seem to have driven traffic to the Hot Girls blog, since there are no comments before the story broke on Tuesday. The Obama images were posted last month.

The blogger who featured the manipulated photo doesn't comment on it. But visitors left mixed feedback.

"Shame on you for the photo above," wrote an anonymous reader.

"Disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself," wrote another.

But the comments also included "the photo is great" and "is this photo actual?"

A site meter on the page lists a total of 1,096,501 views.

'Depressing,' But Legal

Google issued the same disclaimer in the past regarding search results from the word Jew. A search on Tuesday produced several images and cartoons that are likely to offend many users. Some were reminiscent of Nazi caricatures used to depict Jews.

Neither Google's webmaster guidelines nor its terms of service prohibit or discourage users from posting or accessing racially or religiously offensive material.

Heidi Beirich, director of research at the Southern Poverty Research Center in Montgomery, Ala., which monitors hate groups and activities, said it was "depressing" that the manipulated picture of the first lady was the leading search result at a time of rising hate activity in response to the election of America's first black president.

"It's too bad [Google] ends up catering to people who are driven by that kind of hate," said Beirich. "But it's not a legal issue, it's an ethical one. They can run their business any way they want."