Since its a finance site, it should weigh the stock symbol over any description. Given that there is already a stock "MCX:SELL" that is also displayed at the autocomplete, the redirect should have gone there instead.
I would like to give Google the benefit of doubt but since AAPL doesn't even show up at the auto-complete, it clearly looks like a prank by an employee.
How many people are searching for MCX:SELL, and how many are searching for Apple? AAPL's trading volume is like four orders of magnitude higher than MCX:SELL's.
I'm not going to say this proves it, but I'm convinced it's shenanigans. I can't figure out whether or not I have a problem with it. There are some good arguments why it's bad, but not good enough that I actually care. I just don't see the issue, unless I was Selestra, the company that should be popping up. Actually, if I was Selestra, I'd be pretty upset.
But then if they're using a keyword density based algorithm, and that's how the algorithm chooses to display information, then making an acception for Selestra would be 'tampering' - no?
Does this really make you worry that they would tamper with information that mattered? Seems a bit far-fetched to me, doing that would be massively scandalous, and probably illegal.
If they are then they are tampering with information that mattters, SELL is a valid stock descriptor (SELL.ME, selestra corp: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SELL.ME).
Financial data sites are not a good place to be pranking your users.
That alone makes me seriously doubt that this is an easter egg, if it is google will have easter egg all over its oos.
I would like to give Google the benefit of doubt but since AAPL doesn't even show up at the auto-complete, it clearly looks like a prank by an employee.