KAKAO TERMINATES TRENDING SEARCH SERVICE

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Tech giant Kakao and its portal site Daum have decided to terminate the real-time trending search service following the removal of the comment function on entertainment news articles as malicious online comments have led several well-known celebrities to take their own lives recently.

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The real-time trending search service provides a list of search words ranked by the number of words users enter into search windows. Kakao announced this trending search service will be terminated in mid-February, next year. Kakao's co-CEOs Yeo Min-soo and Joh Su-yong explained the service was being misused, when the original purpose was to show users' interests and social phenomena. It's possible growing criticism of that trending search playing a part in spotlighting certain celebrities' names and abetting cyber bullying, prompted Kakao to make this move. The Korean tech giant also ended its people-related search word service yesterday. When searching for a particular person, false information can be provided during the automatic completion or suggestion process. Kakao decided to get rid of the service after taking into consideration various side effects like invasion of privacy and defamation. Following the recent service termination and reorganization, associated search words will no longer be shown when a person's name is entered in Daum or Kakao Talk. In October, Kakao announced it will disable the comment feature on entertainment news and people-related searches, following the suicides of celebrities who were tormented by malicious online comments.